EDIT: If you have a problem with this post, please go here. If then, you still have a problem with it, well, go somewhere else.

For decades, it's been two groups - cool kids, and geeks. Jocks and nerds. The popular people, social butterflies, and the smart, socially awkward outcasts. This is a pretty well-known division and it's only in recent years that it's become cool to be a nerd. Perhaps because now everyone's online, and the internet is our fucking playground. While the cool people are still busy spamming "LOL ur so funy" with giant glittering emoticons over MSN, checking their AOL e-mail that came free when they signed up with AOL as their ISP, and are still using Vista and are utterly lost when they pick up adware and Norton AntiVirus fails to deal with it. Or perhaps they just think that 30,000 pop-ups appearing randomly and all those shortcuts to Casino.net that appeared spontaneously on their desktop are supposed to be there.

Am I bitter? Yes. Why? Because they picked on us, all of us, for years, for being smart, educated, and caring about learning and not content with spending our existence having the emotional depth of a puddle.But now, as Hardison says, "It's the age of the geek, baby", and suddenly every fucker wants to be a jedi.

No. You don't get to do that. You don't get to make a level 1 blood-elf in WoW, run around naked spamming /dance, giggling and getting items free from pre-pubescent boys who aren't yet cynical enough to believe that there are no women on the internet. Don't button-bash your way through Street Fighter, pick Eddie in Tekken (cheapest fucking character ever, although on a tangent I had a friend in high school who could play devastatingly well as Ling Xiaoyu, I'm pretty sure it was some kind of cultural Chinese mind-merge thing because I could never do her Lotus Twist) or play Final Fantasy 8 and be utterly convinced that that makes you one of us.

GTFO.

My Twitter followers will realise that this post is the result of the MichellePhail bandwagon, which tonight, I joined.

I didn't care that her make-up was messy & mediocre, that she made up ridiculous stories about dead rabbits, stalkers, and tried desperately to inject trauma and horror into her life history because, gasp, she didn't grow up rich and wasn't showered with princess dresses. I didn't really care that her skincare line was a product of her greed and a blatant attempt to manipulate her hundreds of thousands of impressionable followers and cash in on their trust in her stupidly-adorable façade.

I probably should have, but contrary to popular opinion, I wasn't looking to jump into a teeming mass of drama, or deal with yet another psychologically unstable, self-proclaimed style icon. I probably wouldn't have been that fazed if she kicked orphans.

What convinced me, was this.

Because "nerd is the new cool", Phan is, apparently, a hardcore girl gamer. All that shit was taken from her blog, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, whatever corners of the internet she plasters her false personality on. She talks about it a lot. She takes photos of herself in front of consoles to prove she's a gamer, she makes references to games that she has never played, cannot spell "Elven", has the fucking audacity to brand herself a "jedi ninja".

(To be fair, Phan isn't the first attractive woman who's attempted to falsely brand themselvesas a geek to gain more popularity. And equally, I hate all of those women, too. )

Phan owns every new-generation console and happily proclaims that she plays WoW as well. She's a hardcore gamer girl, after all. She even made a new Youtube channel. About gaming.That was the thing that really tipped me over the edge, from mildly annoyed and into psychotic rage. I'm aware that this rant won't be my most coherent, because I'm just too fucking angry. You could have kicked some orphans, Phan, you could have talked about how you like to kill your rabbit, or torture your cat.

But no. You went too far. You stole our culture, giggled all over it, and then molested it with your vapid Valley-girl game references and sycophantic desperation to be liked for being a million things that you aren't.

Her new channel, which goes on and on about what a cool girl gamer she is, because you know, girl gamers who are cute Asian girls are totally rare and sexy and will get her even more subscribers, has three videos that she appeared to take part in. One of them is simply a trailer of other video footage, another is a short Streetfighter match in which she cheats to win, and the third is her doing a painting of Aeris & Cloud from FFVII, while talking over the J-pop-sounding music some asinine, superficial generic bullshit about people's hearts and goodness and rainbows and puppies and junk. The other videos are posted by her collaborator. These are the videos that actually have anything to do with gaming.

This video channel actually hosted a contest which involved playing against Phan on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and it was later revealed that it was her ex-boyfriend playing in her place, not her.

But, because she's so hardcore, she was probably spending her time playing other games, right? Like WoW, for example, MMORPGs can be pretty damn addictive. I remember clocking an average of 9 hours a day back when I got into Guild Wars. You might say I have no life, Phan, but see, make-up and geekery actually is my life, a life I like, and you stole it. Checking up on her character, Ricebunny, which was created in 2008, today it's... level 26. She played WoW for just over a month, and hasn't played it in almost two and a half years.

You know what, Phan? If you were a gamer, you'd know not to name your product line "IQQU". When I heard it, I honestly thought someone was making a "QQmoar" joke with the name. Way to name your skincare line after the most infamous gaming meme there is! No one who has played an MMO for any length of time could have made this mistake. You probably should just fucking QQ now.

She has two Xbox 360s, a PS3, and reportedly walks around with a PS3 controller in her purse. I have no idea why though, since her Xbox Live profile hasn't moved since 2009 and she's completed 62% of one game for her PS3. Clearly you play so much, you must be armed with an extra console controller at all times. She made a big fuss of being incredibly grateful to a hotel for providing her room with a PS3 because she was, supposedly, so torn up about missing E3. Looks like she made great use of that, then.

I can see gaming is a serious, hardcore passion for her. Obviously what I need to be doing is posting photos of myself in front of my consoles in order to secure my nerd-cred. You can read more, specifically, about this perverse pretence over here. Some people seem to be missing the point, which is not that I don't think Phan is "enough" of a gamer to qualify for our elite ranks, it's that she fucking isn't one, at all! Shockingly, one of the prerequisites if you're going to label yourself a gamer and refer to it constantly, taking photographs of yourself next to your consoles over and over, is actually playing games. Like, not telling people you play WoW 'cause you're such a nerd, when you haven't for almost two and a half years. Like that.

I know this post is pretty personal and venomous, but you know what, fuck it. Fuck Michelle Phan. Stealing my culture is pretty fucking personal. We have enough to contend with, with ditzy girls who do show up in games giggling with names like LuvMeAngel16 expecting fanboys to give them free crap, without people just pretending they've picked up a controller in the last year when they haven't. Playing 3 Final Fantasy games doesn't make you a fucking gamer, a nerd, or whatever culture you think it's totally cool to adopt. Some of us wear our geekdom as a badge of countercultural pride, long before it was cool, and endured, because we believe that things like sharks, lasers, pirates and ninjas are seriously awesome and that you won't be fucking laughing when we finish building our robot army.

If you decided being a vegetarian was a cool social label you wanted, because hey, it makes you look like you care about animal rights, and shit, right? Except that you weren't a vegetarian, and you ate every animal except for, let's say, venison, but you took pictures of yourself next to carrots, so that ought to count.Then people would be pretty pissed that you were calling yourself a vegetarian despite not being one just for the image. This wouldn't be acceptable, so why is you lying and stealing my subculture acceptable?

Don't try to fucking appropriate my culture because you think it will make you more popular, and you're utterly devoid of your own. How desperate do you have to be to lie about facets of your personality, and what you enjoy? It makes you look pathetic, it reflects poorly on female geeks in general, and it pisses us off to boot.

Speaking for female gamers everywhere, Phan; do not want. GTFO our subculture and get the fuck off our internets.

EDIT: For clarification, the source of my rage isn't "you don't play enough games to justify being called a gamer/hardcore gamer" it's "you are repeatedly and pervasively lying about having any genuine or sustained interest in gaming at all in order to benefit for the social status now attached to it."I don't hate people who don't game, game a little, hate gaming, or only play Jenga. I hate people who pretend to like something they don't, something which I deeply love, in order to make themselves look "cool". If you believe that she actually does play, and enjoy games, then you and I will continue to disagree, and the world will keep spinning.

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comments:

(Not to be confused with fucking men, because that's something entirely different.)

This happened to me in high school when one of the super preppy girls decided she wanted to be a "punk" like me (it wasn't even me who came up with the label, it was her??-- not even one I identified with, lol)... UGH. It made me soooo angry, so I can totally relate.

And on another note, this reminds me of last year when we had to vote for senior best in high school. There was a section for "gamers" and you could pick one girl and one boy. I didn't know who to pick for the girl; my friend told me to choose this one girl. I asked why. He said "Because she is really good at Mario Kart".

I like video games but there is NO WAY I consider myself a gamer. I mean, I have my own nerdy endeavors (anime watching, convention going, cosplay making, etc) but I do not nearly play enough video games to label myself as a gamer, or "nerd chic". I really hope this "NERDZZ R CEWL" trend goes away soon.

@Alyson - I felt like the world was sliding downhill when I saw Space Invaders shirts in Topshop. I think the same rule should apply to gamer apparel and collegiate stuff - if you haven't experienced it, you can't wear clothing branded with it.

Get the absolute eff out of here. Michelle Phan, gamer? *spits on the internet*

160 hours in Oblivion, probably more than that in Morrowind before it, and I still wouldn't describe myself as a 'gamer'. I occasionally play games, and I am married to a gamer. I am indignant on your behalfs.

I actually do work in "the industry", although not for one of her mega dream companies. But you can be damn sure if her resume ever came through our door we'd laugh at it for a half hour then bin it.

I worked damn hard to get my job, and still a lot of girls I know make fun of me for joining a boys club. So to see her giggling and making wild, nonsense statements makes me sick. She doesn't have a fucking clue, and most definitely does not have what it takes.

All my life i have been a geek. No, not a gamer but a geek. My parents are geeks, my fiance is a geek and my children will most likely be geeks. This new trend *~geeks are in~* is extremely annoying. Ask said Geekette if she knows anything about Star Wars or Doctor Who she'll blink numbly at you, then giggle. She like reads and stuff, this makes her a geek. I feel like Miss Phan is one of these Faux-geeks. Anastasia I worship your awesomeness for having the balls to write this up. As I said before, you are the QUEEN.

I wonder what it would be like if everyone IRL introduced themselves the way they do on social networking sites. I had a similar experience to this blog entry last night at a party; and all I could think was, if you have to pound that part of your personality in to everyone's brainmeats over and over again... chances are you aren't what you keep saying and you're fooling no one.

But yeah, this entry kind of hit home for me because I got bullied a lot in school for liking all the things that a lot of people now claim they like for online nerd cred. Do I still like those things? Yes, but I tend not to list them because I think it's so unnecessary, and in the words of Disco Stu, "Disco Stu doesn't advertise." And most of the time, the people that claim to be "gamers" or "techies" side-eye you IRL for geeking out about difficult levels or gadgets. Then they stare at you like, "ew, why do you know that shit?"

I can't say that I truly understand what you're trying to say... because I'm not a gamer myself, but I do know that I didn't like reading this. I don't really like Michelle or her videos, but I didn't like this as well. I subscribed to your blog because I love reading your make up posts and seeing your photos, but this post made me kind of uncomfortable. Am I even welcome here if I'm not a nerd or a gamer...or whatever it's called?

This is not a personal attack. I actually stopped for a minute and think if I should post this comment or not. But after seeing your message under ''leave your comment'' I said to myself - why not. Hope I get a reply.

Of course you're welcome, Nihrida. I imagine the majority of my readers aren't into the geek thing, but are mostly into the make-up thing.

What you would not be welcome to do, however, is start professing on every social media that you were totally a hardcore gamer, and total nerd, a jedi ninja, etc etc, when you have acknowledged you are none of those things.

My problem with this is that Phan is adopting my subculture falsely, in order to make herself look more appealing. Boys find the idea of the sexy, elusive female gamer nerd attractive, and Phan is pretending to be what she isn't to get this attention.

It's insulting to those of us who actually are a part of the subculture, when this is something we identify with VERY strongly, to have little wannabes professing they're just like us, demeaning all female nerds in general, when they're obviously only doing it because they think it will make them look more appealing.

I don't care that she's not a nerd. I care that she's claiming she is, when she's not. I don't like having my culture appropriated from me in order for someone to boost their subscriptions and get more drooling fanboys.

Suppose it weren't gamer/geekdom we were talking about. Suppose the subculture in question was veganism (yes, it's a subculture, in addition to being a dietary or lifestyle choice, and is growing in popularity lately, too). Suppose that I had grown up vegan, lived my life this way, it coloured what I did during my day, who my friends were, and the kinds of activities I enjoyed, and helped to shape my personality.

If someone prominent started posting all over the internet that they were vegan, had all the same values, did all the same things I did, when they actually weren't vegan, simply because being vegan was popular and made her look cooler - this would annoy me, and a lot of other vegans.

Veganism is a weird example to use, because of the obvious animal rights and moral concerns. My point is, that geekery is a huge part of my identity. I've grown-up with it, been bullied for it, and it shapes who I am, what I like, how I think and how I write. Having someone demean that just so they can be more popular is infuriating.

I don't mind anyone who shares different interests and values, as long as they don't piss all over mine.

I'm so glad someone else feels the same way about the sudden rise of the "female gamers" that only play Final Fantasy, DDR and Mario. Sometimes they might fuck around on WoW for good measure to prove how totally awesome and hardcore they are. It's bothered me for a while that so many girls are suddenly "gamers" just to become popular. I know several girls who dabble in games JUST to attract guys. I always disliked Michelle Phan anyway. Now I like her even less. :D

@Vx - Veganism in my prior comment might have been a dodgy example, but I do feel it's akin to people who claim to be vegetarians because it's trendy, but then eat every animal except for, say, quail.

If more people are getting into games, great. I love meeting new geeks. I don't love meeting people who pretend to be and then look at me weirdly when I tell them that I cried when Wormmon died in that Digimon episode. That was fucking sad.

I never liked Michelle Phan - I think her make-up is nothing special and I think you're a total dick to have 10,000 egg-and-aspirin facial vids on YT and then make your own fucking skincare line - but fucking hell! What a douche. And I'm not even a gamer - I'm a game widow, if anything!

@Grace - I'd call myself a gamer, I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer. I imagine those are the people who make speedrun youtube videos, enter tournaments and so on. Although I have pretty much memorised the entire Portal script.

@April - Rofl! She's only a year younger than me, but if you wander over the Tumblr post about it and read what she says about Unchartered 2, it's just... wow.

@Yoshi - Congrats! I know that Phyrra works for a games company, too, so it's pretty insulting to women who are actually genuine in their passion and effort to get into that world. It looks like her only real talent is in becoming popular.

@Marie Ella - Ah, but then perhaps we would not have had the same "One day, you'll see, I'll show them, I'LL SHOW THEM ALL" ambition to succeed?

@Pix - I've played games since... as far back as I can remember, but grew up on SEGA, not Nintendo. My friends range from science-geek, math-geek, to language, comic or game-geek, we come in many forms, but I don't think there's a Phail-geek.It wasn't really balls, btw, more like blinding rage.

@Zoffe - I love you for reading it? <3

@Tea - That's why I don't trust any company/product that keeps repeating "professional". If you have to scream what you are, you probably aren't, and should stop trying.

@Robyn - I didn't really think about her until I found out what her line was called, and then, the whole self-proclaimed gamer-nerd thing.

@Jangsara - ROFL "It sounds like she's desperately trying to hypnotize her viewers." She probably is. I get the feeling the things she says are scripted, it doesn't feel free-flowing at all.

I wanted to play Lost Odyssey before the dentist but the universal remote for the TV isn't working, so Xbox won't work. Hisssssss.

Oh, one more thing about "geek is in" -thing.Geek inspired fashion. I mean, seriously. Here's a great example from Finland: http://www.hel-looks.com/?p=image/archives/10/20100622_01/ and http://www.hel-looks.com/?p=image/archives/15/20100424_03/Those fucking glasses are SO TOTALLY COOL and IN and AWESOME, and if you don't really need glasses, you don't need the lenses at all. Just walk around using just FRAMES, 'cos it's so COOL.No it isn't.

I saw the word TEKKEN and stopped reading to comment because Tekken 6 was like the one fighting game I could actually kick some serious ass act. Christie Monteirio forever. I played best as her but Lili was always my favourite character. Will comment again when I've actually read your post lol.

@TSGNP - (Seriously, what can I call you?) I played as Julia once she was brought into it, which was I thinnnnkkkkk Tekken 3, and her mum before then. I liked her kicks. I played as Jin sometimes, too.

Oh, I get it now. =D I got the wrong idea, like GTFO if you're not one of us. It felt like bullying, but I guess it's the language barrier's fault. As I said, I get you now.

BTW: I was subscribed to MP's youtube channel, but I unsubscribed a week ago because I never really watched her videos. Her voice annoys me and her make up isn't really that good. I don't know about her personality, but now I see all the Michelle Phail sites I never knew of before.

Anyway, I'm glad we cleared this out. I'll be ''stalking'' you in the future as well. ;)

I'm glad we sorted that out ^^I mean, it doesn't matter what you're into as long as you're... actually into it. Pretending to like something just to get attention is utterly lame. Ugh.

Her make-up really isn't very good. It looks nice from a distance, whenever you get to see it close up, her foundation is poorly blended, her eyeliner is always messy, and she never blends eyeshadows adequately. I might sound arrogant saying this, but when mine looks like that, that's when I begin the tidying & clean-up stage of actually fixing & finishing it.

I completely hear your outrage. There's something about mediocrity that the masses gravitate to I think, for whatever reason. Perhaps that explains her popularity.

What bothers me the most is that people so badly want to seem geeky now, even if it's just not naturally a part of their personality. I mean, I face that dilemma on a day to day basis.. and it's actually made a drastic impact on my social life. I go to a college INFAMOUS for the amount of geeks/nerds/socially inept creepers that plague it. That being said; ALL my friends are gamers. All of them.

I game a little, very casually, but I don't keep up with it that closely, and my repertoire isn't exactly impressive. Here, it's like a bizarre opposite universe where if you can't talk about games extensively it's actually hard to hold a conversation with most people. Activities and hang out time seems to revolve mainly around gaming, watching/talking about anime... and hardcore nerd stuff. I'm an art major, a film and lit nerd, not a CS major... even my own fiancee regularly leaves me feeling left out when talking to friends about programming. But not even ONCE have I thought about compromising myself by claiming to be part of a culture I clearly mostly ignorant of.. so of course it upsets me to hear about something like this.

I can only imagine what it would be like if suddenly becoming a literary or film geek suddenly became inexplicably popular. If some gum-popping, bimbo started proclaiming her love for Citizen Kane or Kundera in order to be popular I might have to eviscerate her on the spot.

haha not Phan centric.. but can be applied..you know what is equally annoying? GIRL GAMERS THAT PIMP THEMSELVES OUT IN MMOS or in/on ANY forum/guild $@!$#@!%@!# OMG. It makes me rage SO hard. It's like have some god damned self respect you attention seeking ho bag.

I hate that nerdyness is in! I'm not a nerd, but I am and always have been a childish geek.Although I like my games and anime culture and everything, I wouldn't even dare call myself a gamer girl, as much as I'd like to be one.But all of a sudden it's cool to play games and watch anime? This is partly Facebook's fault for those silly little games that everyone plays and now they think they're nerds. I love that I can openly proclaim my love for Space Invaders by wearing a T-Shirt but I HATE IT when people who only stay at the computer for music and IMing think of themselves as cute for having heard of something remotely geeky!

And have you noticed how only *some* aspects of being a nerd are cool? Like if you play WOW you're cool but if you play something more obscure you get *the look* ?It's like I'm still a social outcast for not being the cool kind of nerd WTF?

Preach it, girl! AMEN! Hollah! Whatever else people say. First of all, I dont like her. Her voice drives me nuts and there are a million people who are better at what she is trying to do and 2nd, this trick a gamer??? Is she effin' serious? LAWDAMERCY.

@Jangsara Hit the nail on the head with the glasses without lenses thing! I got bullied so badly for wearing glasses when I was younger (and occasionally still get mean comments now) so when I see people doing that I want to poke them in the eye!

@Anastasia thanks :). It's so difficult to be a woman in this industry as it is, as its SO male-centric and women aren't really represented well. I'm one of only two girls in a team of about 120, so it gets to me when people like that undermine the respect that I'm trying to earn for myself.

Just read the entire post. You have every right to be angry because cultural appropriation is pathetic. I like games, but I'm not a gamer. I like J and K-pop, but I'm not a koreaboo. People have an obsession with claiming other people's culture as theirs. Teenagers wearing Kaffirs with no concept of what they mean. Whites with dreadlocks (no racial). What's wrong with embracing your own culture? (or counterculture as the case may be)

Oh lol! Sorry Anastasia, you can call me Lena lol :P Didn't expect a reply. Thanks for it (the reply) though. Julia was pretty cool. Reminded me a little of Lara Croft which is probably why I liked her. I've not played as Jin yet. Is it bad that given the choice of a female character, I'll always play her? The males must feel neglected, rofl.

Ok, I've been a lazy b*tch and stopped commenting but....GOSH I'm angry!You see... when I was younger guys would throw rocks at me for being ugly and then have me teaching them math (though it's never been my best subject).I was a freak for being a tomboy, enjoying video-games (tough I never managed to be a hardcore gamer 'cause they cost something between 50$ and 100$ here, and I'm no rich girl, sorry), and all that jazz.

[First, I gotta say girl gamers are not unusual here. When the first consoles were released, whoever had the money to buy it (damn 3rd world land :D) would play it. It was much later that people taught us games were not for the fancy ladies!]

To make things worse, I joined the goth subculture when I was 14 or something, so I was a nerd and a goth: the perfect joke.Girls would despise me, but still be nice out of pity. Boys would be aggressive, violent bastards. A lovely world.

Still, I noticed things had started to change when a girl I met started trying to become me. She'd copy my ways, tastes and stuff... She told me I was her "perfect model". "WTF?" I thought "She dreams of becoming a 'point and laugh' matter?"

I had not noticed, but being a geek was becoming a symbol of being smarter, special, interesting, unusual and cool.

Now, conventions that once were empty are totally packed with people. Everyone is a geek, a goth, a punk and a j-rocker at the same time! Amazing, really ¬¬

You see, I don't consider myself a big geek. I'm not all that freaky for science, I was into manga before meeting HQ and I don't read that much of it. I enjoy books, but most are horror stories. I love games, but I can't afford to buy as many as I'd like to and I don't have the time to play them that much as well...I was just good at school, never had to study hard (if I understand it, I remember it), was excluded and hated....(oh! And loved RPG! To the point of teaching my skate-loving friends how to play it, just to have a rpg party hahahaha - Oh, and a computer freak, for my parents worked with computers and taught me lots of stuff..)

Anyway, I was a strange geeky kid, but not as much as some friends of mine...

Still, it bothers me like HELL to see the popular kids calling themselves geeks! I mean... wait... WHAT?Have you being joke-matter? No? Them get the hell out of my lawn!

Suddenly, if you like sports, you are a "sport geek" - wha? That does not even make sense!

And all sub-cultures have merged or something! (I think all excluded people joined hands to the point it does not even make sense)

Anyway... it also bothers me that it made all geeks suddenly become so serious about being geeks that it feels more like work then fun now! Like you had to prove you are a geek... which makes no sense!

Games are my escape-place. It's where I run to be rescued of my life problems. I'm sorry, I don't want to "prove" I love it or anything.

Still, it does not make sense to claim being a hardcore gamer if you just don't play...

Identity is something important. People should take it more serious. It's not a tool to become popular, it's a reason to be alive, to work, to grow...

Sorry, some things I said does not make sense either. I'm angry, so translating my thoughts to english is just too f*cking hard! Haha!

(By the waaaay: games taught me english. I have good language skills, but it was Alone in the Dark 3 that taught me most of my english! I wanted to understand what was going on so hard that I'd play with a dictionary by my side!)

(By the waaaay: games taught me english. I have good language skills, but it was Alone in the Dark 3 that taught me most of my english! I wanted to understand what was going on so hard that I'd play with a dictionary by my side!)

Anyway, I did not know the lady before you pointed her out, but she gained my dislike.

Besides, if you are a girl gamer, you don't babble about it 'cause guys will f*ck your game up, trying to please you all the time to get naked pictures as thank-you gifts! - which is the main reason I stopped playing most MMORPGS and now, when guys ask my name, I'm John. Nice to meet you.

One time, she was on blogtv and I asked her "Horde or Alliance?" and she said "Umm I guess Alliance is good if you want to be a warrior or something but I like the dark elves."What the fuck does that even mean? There are "dark" elves on both horde and alliance and you can be a warrior on horde. I know that's a stupid breaking point, but I sort of just realized she was totally full of shit at that moment haha

I approve of this post.....this is the most awesome thing to wake up to and I LOL'd so much....please for the love of god never stop posting your thoughts!

At first my fiance' couldn't understand why I was ranting about what everyone was discussing about her....then I told him she says she's sooooo into Street Fighter (he's done tournaments for this one) and he said "WTF???? UH NO! GTFO" lol.

While I have a deep appreciation for your geek culture (mostly as a connoisseur of sci-fi movies, not a gamer), I feel a bit left out in your rant. My personal domain of nerdery is more of the sciences - biology, chemistry, physics, and a lil' bit of computer programming now. I guess studying the evolution of neural circuits in sea slugs just isn't glamorous enough to be co-opted :P

Does my taste in game titles---yes, I love the entire FF series (only up to IX), the Mario RPG/Paper Mario series, the first three games in the Metroid series, Katamari Damacy, Stretch Panic, Killer Instinct (YES I ACTUALLY OWN THAT GAME), Star Ocean 1 & 2---render me a noob and a tard? Am I doomed to derp because I don't like any MMOs due to a bad combo of short attention span and dislike of multi-player games?

I'm frustrated that the nerd community has become so exclusive and cynical. I don't know if I really belong as part of that community, and I don't want to try because of how much bitterness and raeg I've seen in most sites/groups containing those individuals. Thus far my only luck finding others with similar tastes (chemistry, engineering, games, old cartoons) has actually been in the crafting and makeup regions of the webnet, and even that is a pretty tenuous bond.

@TheCandiedMango - You misunderstand, and I actually answered this in a previous comment, but I'll do it again.

My issue isn't whether people are gamer-enough, or that I dislike people who aren't. What I don't like is having my identity co-opted by someone who wants to look cool, when they obviously have no interest in the things they're professing they do. Someone who plays games once every two years isn't a gamer girl, which is fine, provided they don't then CONTINUALLY tell the entire world they are, on every social media forum, and keep posting pictures of all their consoles and videos about how they carry controllers around in their bag in case they need to do surprise! gaming.

I love RPGs. And the Final Fantasy series, and I hate FPS games. I wouldn't consider myself a "hardcore" gamer, just a regular one, and I log a lot of hours in the games I do like, but I certainly don't play every release. Phan calls herself a nerd, a geek, a dork, and a "hardcore gamer" over and over, and yet we never see her doing... any of the things she says she does. She's wearing this thing, which, to me, is part of my identity, something I grew with and suffered with and am proud of, like a scarf to garner more attention, because gamer girls are "in" right now. I'm sorry if it offends you, but that sickens me.

If she were claiming to be a vegetarian but still eating meat, just so people thought she was cool and cared about animals, people would have a problem with that. A big one. I don't see how her lying about being a gamer-nerd is any different. They're both subcultures with a set of values, practices and preferences, which help to form social perceptions and identities.

I agree that there's a lot of cynicism in the geek world - for instance, there's a lot of hate from PvP fans against players who prefer PvE. I think all of that is pretty stupid.

I think lying in order to convince people you're something you're not is stupider, and I'm offended by someone pretending to be something I am in order to make themselves more popular.

Gamers are "in", maybe cause everyone's playing tennis on their Wii and feeling hip, but the sciences seem to still be largely given odd looks.

This post in particular was, I supposed, focused on gamer-girls. No one really cares if you're a male gamer, it's the females that are the rare ones, thus obviously worth lying about to give yourself subculture-sex-appeal.

I hear you loud and clear. I'm into alot of thing the 'cool kids' are not. Old Star Trek, Star Wars ( My dad showed them to me around the time ep2 came out. I talked about it so much my mother forbid to talk star wars for over a year. this was before I had the internet)Old movies, history, conjoined twins, steampunk, etc.

It really bothers me when people do things to just seem cool. If you don't know who Admiral Akbar is, GTFO of my fandom. Do you just like Harry Potter becuase Dan Radcliffe is hot? GTFO of my fandom

Do it becuase you love, or you not going to be happy.

And as nerdy as I am, I would never call myself a gamer. I've played Star Wars legos (which is awesome) at friends houses but I never play games on my own. Though my father wants to buy and xbox, so that may change soon.

And Phan isn't even good at make up. I have learned nothing from her. You know who is actually helpful? People like the Pixiwoo girls. That show you, like, blending and contouring. they don't just do "looks."anyway I'm rambling.

Allow me to direct you to this short video about the ridiculousness of youtube gurus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmWn5w0LBqk

@Hae Won - If people want to try and merge into the scene and get more nerdy, play more games, or just be casual gamers and appreciate it, that's totally cool with me.

I just don't like this lying bullshit. The really obvious, desperate attempts to create a false image because just now, this subculture is the "in thing". Christ, I'm not a fucking fashion trend. The things I feel passionate about shouldn't be tried on and bragged about to get attention when the person wearing them doesn't give a shit.

It's, I don't know, pearls before swine or something.

Your backwards situation is interesting. I feel that way around people I'd deem hardcore nerds - intelligence or specialised knowledge is intimidating! I feel nervous when I'm up against any kind of computer/code/science geek because I know that my knowledge in these areas is limited, even if it is more than your average non-nerd.

People need to ditch both the elitism and the trying-on-subcultures-like-outfits crap though.

@Seii - Yeah, absolutely. I actually edited a small bit in to mention that.

@Joice - The differences are, I think, that nerds are general, nerdy in all areas, whereas geekiness is area-specific, for example, comic-book geeks are not necessarily anime geeks. Gamer would fall under a type of geek, at least, in my estimation.

I don't consider that very important. It's not necessary to categorise them, but I suppose it helps clarity when talking. The most common geeks - gamer geek, increasingly comic-book geek (with the movies coming out) and so on, are accepted as pretty cool now, yeah. But science geeks, history geeks, etc etc, still left unprodded. Lucky them.

@L - I don't mind fake people quite so much when they're not trying to fake being something I am. Then it gets to me. Christ, my life, my identity, isn't something you can just pick up and try on like a jacket, and tell everyone you are because you think it'll make you look cool when you have no appreciation for the things I love. Yick yick yick.

@Yoshi - Holy crap, that's one hell of a minority. Kudos to you for getting there, and I hope that it goes well. I hear that companies increasingly want women in these positions, I wonder if it's more discrimination against them, or simply lack of interest from women, which is keeping the ranks down.

@KittenMittens - The Buffy thing. It instantly replayed in my head and I lol'd. <3 Yes, your zombies can come, provided they don't turn on us considering they can't eat the robots.

@Lena - Much easier. I think I have the right to be annoyed. Y'know, if it was a RACIAL culture thing, no one would even argue. Also, I'm loathe to admit that I liked Julia mostly for her awesome jeans.

@Cacau - I LOVE your comments. I think everyone does. You have such a charming way of putting things. And you're right, I was the same, I went through school friendless and alone, I EARNED MY GEEK STRIPES, damnit. I didn't just pick up Guitar Hero and decide I was going to do that, 'cause that's what the cool kids are doing.

If more people are joining ranks who have a GENUINE interest, then great! But if they're just trying to affect some superficial image of geek, then it demeans everything I stand for.

@Annamax - Hahaha. You know she only went with Hoarde because Hoarde is generally considered to be cooler than Alliance. Crazy thing? HER WOW CHARACTER IS AN ALLIANCE, HUMAN WARRIOR. It's like she's allergic to the truth.

@Amy - Your fiance sounds awesome :p It's just not fun to have something you love paraded about insincerely by some vapid little puppet.

I don't mind how much or little someone games, I just mind having something I'm passionate about appropriate by someone who is insincere so they can look cool. That demeans all the things I love. And you're right, it's happening with a lot of stuff these days ._. At least if they just think someone's hot, or wanna look cool to their friends, but I find using it to gain popularity and, inevitably more money, particularly disgusting.

@Phyrra - Just. Everything. About her is so. Incredibly. Fake. It's an insult to those of us who actually give a crap about this stuff, to have it flaunted about by some airheaded bit of fluff who doesn't give a crap.

Oh yeah, I carry a PS3 controller around in my bag despite not playing that console in 2 years, too.

@Michelle - Pretty much looks that way. The amount she goes on about it is just, ugh. It's not like it's natural. I don't feel the need to sprawl over my consoles and take pictures, or repeatedly remind everyone that HEY GUISE I PLY GAMES RLY GUD K.

This post has brought me a ton of LULz. Not many people dare to talk against Michelle "I got a million 13 year olds following me" Phan, kudos to you :D

I dislike her for many reasons but mainly because she exaggerates everything to an extreme. HARDCORE game, HARDCORE makeup artist, HARDCORE Christian, etc.

The NANA tutorial pissed me off enough but if she's going rip off a J-rock or VK look one day and say how she's so into it I'm going after her with pitchforks.

That aside, I feel sad that when people talk about MMOs they bring up how costly it is to play these games and how WoW is like the center of the universe of online gaming. I love games but I'm damn poor since i spend my money mainly on makeup, however there's a whole world of free MMOs out there that aren't that bad and worth trying;)

This post reminded me of when Pokemon first came to Singapore (I was in primary 4 or 5 then) and I loved it so much. I remember drawing my favourites (Growlith and Nidoqueen!) in my notebook, and running around pretending to be Ponyta. Literally all of the girls (except one, who was my friend anyway) thought I was super weird (not that I wasn't weird before that anyway), and the boys thought I was lame.... then Pokemon caught on (with the boys only, it seemed), and I was ostracised anyway because I was a girl, and "weird."

Someone stole an entire album of my Pokemon cards and threw them away/kept it for themselves(?) one day, when I left it on a table to go to the bathroom really quick. I think I even had a shiny Venusaur in there. It was one of the saddest moment of my childhood, and reading your post made me recall how fucking angry I was at those people for picking on me for no other reason other than that I was... weird, I guess.

I'm 21 now, and I'm a weird adult - but I will never think of someone like Phan as a nerd or geek of any sorts. It's not just making references to games/shows/movies, or thinking Final Fantasy is tuts cool - it's growing up with that culture, and having experiences (positive and negative) as memories, as something you do as a daily routine, as part of your life.

I play games, but it isn't my entire identity. I'm more of a concept art nerd since many video games tend to give me really bad motion sickness :( Though, I've been trying out stuff like L4D2 with lots of little breaks to make sure I don't end up with a 6-hour headache.

@Anastasia: I totally agree with your Phantard sentiments, I'm certainly not upset with that. I can also see your distaste for the appropriation of geek culture/language; it's annoying to see a blog or article, read the first sentence and be immediately turned off because the individual is proclaiming their geekiness and how they're so nerdy and uggghhh. That's just douchebaggery and self-inflation. Those are the people who immediately deny everything when geeks become uncool again. It feels like a "my dick is bigger" competition, but with less peen.

I actually wrote my comment after reading some of the comments in response to your article that seemed a little condemnatory regarding the types of 'legitimate' games. Sometimes it feels like there's a hierarchy in the community of people who play games: you have casual gamers, normal gamers, ultragamers and nongamers, as well as divisions of newbies vs. noobs, 1337ards, chantards, Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Xbox vs. PC games, things like that. Where is the love, man? *world's smallest violin*

I'm not a gamer. Really the only games I like are Mario games and those stupid computer flash games. In fact I had to look up some the things you were talking about!

However I can understand your rage. I hate when someone pretends to be something they're not. It's desperate and pathetic and when you're popular like MP, you're bound to get outed sooner or later. So why even bother lying in the first place? What's wrong with just enjoying playing games now and then? Why does she have to be super-mega hardcore? I think it stems from her childhood. She was probably picked on for some reason or another (weren't we all?) And then she decided to just be a poser an pretend to like whatever the group she wanted to infiltrate liked. I'm sure she does the same things with boyfriends too.

It's annoying but sad at the same time. She's never going to realize who she truly is or develop any sort of personality outside of the one she falsely uses now. And that sucks cause she might've been a really cool person.

You make very good points -- and while I think some people are going to defend Michelle simply because they just do that, she is a big offender of that sort of stuff. Most of the things she does are sort of "poser-ish" and her trying too hard to be something. That applies to most trends or to most subcultures. Goth subculture can get like that -- there is a goth club where I live and if I go, I don't try to dress in that style. I'm not that type of person. I go in whatever I feel like going in. Some people instead go and try to overdo it... the crazy makeup, chains everywhere, and you can tell they're completely out of place.

The same applies in gaming... I get -so- annoyed looking at comic and anime con pics and you can just tell some of the girls are dressing like that to be cute and get attention. They have no idea who they're dressed up as.

My Halloween costumes are usually sort of lame. Sure, I'd love to do a Chun Li costume... or a Silent Hill nurse costume... but if I'm going to do it, I want to dedicate 110% to it and not half-ass the construction or my mannerisms. It's disrespectful to the person you're imitating.

I am annoyed with Michelle Phan for a ton of reasons, but this just made me rage out... seriously.

I just don't understand why people do this. I am no gamer, I'm more of a book nerd, but my brother was a gamer ever since he got his first console, a Commodore 64, and he would be horrified.

Mind you I never fit into either group, popular or geek, I always seemed to straddle the sidelines, because I was never quite cool enough to be a geek. I was far too happy reading my books during lunch, lol. I also had friends in both camps, those who'd I grown up and were popular, and those who I met through actually being interested in school. I wasn't a goth, nor 'in fashion', I was more grungey. I think geekiness is getting more complicated these days too! Makes me feel a little old ;)

I think my favorite part of watching that gaming channel you posted was when she said something about first playing FF on a playstation.

I mean...I remember popping FF huge arse cartridge into my NES and staying up for days straight with no sleep sipping Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper until I beat the damn thing lol. Now that's gaming...ontop of the playing the old, old....god I feel old now...Commodore 64 and Atari...I miss the old games sometimes...

Haven't read through all the comments yet, but I wanna post this before I forget...

Lesbians & bisexual women have been dealing with this sort of thing since Girls Gone Wild became popular. It's absolutely soul crushing to think you've hit it off with someone only to realize they want attention from the public, not from you. I know sexuality is a continuum, but as someone who went through years of pain and strife to establish who I am, I can't help but be mad at girls who just, ya know, totally love that Katy Perry song omg.

On the other side, I've noticed the LGBT community (at least my local one, which is in a college town riddled with "GGW lesbians") is becoming more rigidly hierarchical. You have to sorta prove how gay you are, especially if you're a bi female.

Yeah, this is so lame and annoying. I'm not really a gamer, I like mmorpgs but don't play a whole lot. My boyfriend is much more of a gamer, he plays wow quite a bit. I played it with him for awhile but I didn't like the raiding or dungeons very much.However, relating this, it's like Goth to me. I consider myself goth, as a way of life. It's not about being emo or angsty or even wearing only black clothes, but having a macabre sense of humor/outlook on life. And hot topic totally trashed and ruined goth. Now the "goth" kids go and buy those baggy pants and wear band tshirts or whatever and thick black eyeliner and think they're goth. Thankfully, most of those kids grow out of it but it's still annoying.

I'm hesitant to write this comment because honestly, this post made me quite uncomfortable and wondering what things I might do to put others in a rage as well. I can't speak from your exact perspective since I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer but as a blogger and youtuber who is heck-bent on trying to spread positivity, I do feel that a lot of hate is directed toward "gurus" (I hate that term) for things that are unintentional.

I'm not best friends with Michelle but I have talked with her a few times before and she has only been a genuine, caring person to me. She is human, not some robot. Just as you wouldn't enjoy someone tearing you apart for every step you take, I'm sure it's not easy for her to have so much attention on her flaws. From what I've seen she has enjoyed gaming for a long time, before she was famous as well. As a female gamer yourself, shouldn't you welcome another female gamer with open arms, no matter what level of gaming they are? It's highly unlikely that her "ricebunny" moniker is the only screenname she uses for everything. I'm not saying you have to like her but is it really worth the energy to have so much rage for someone you've never actually talked to in person? She considers herself a hardcore gamer girl and is proud to be so, just like you. Is that so bad that she doesn't live up to your own high standard of what "hardcore" is? She's not lying, she is her own opinion of what a "hardcore gamer" is. Does that take anything away from your love of gaming?

I had a lot of respect for the honesty and humor of your blog because it promoted a positive outcome and a fresh viewpoint, but I'm not really sure what positivity can come out of this post. I really hope that this doesn't come off as offensive because I'm not trying to offend you, I just want to bring up another perspective and stand up for someone who has been a kind person to me in the past and who, for as much hate as she gets, would never write a hate comment, post, or video about another person.

I agree with much of your comment, especially about how difficult it must be to live under constant scrutiny. Some of the forums referenced in the article were downright awful. (Hell, even Ana misspelled Uncharted 2 as "Unchartered" in this very thread; we're all human.) I don't think, though, that this post is wholly about Michelle Phan. She's more of a representation for a whole slew of girls who adopt the geek or gamer moniker because it's trendy or to get lascivious attention. As you can tell from the response this has gotten, it's a sore subject for a lot of dyed in the wool geeks, most of whom have faced some sort of social persecution for their interests. It happens when any sub/counterculture becomes trendy; we want mainstream tolerance, not to be a fad.

However, even I, who usually gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, spat out my Dr. Pepper when I saw some of her stats! You could argue she's just too busy with RL to play much, but if she has so much time to photograph herself near her consoles, you'd think she could use some of those opportunities to actually play instead. It reminds me of a violinist I knew growing up. Technically, she was indeed a violinist. According to one of my etude books, anyone who took lessons, no matter how good or bad, was a violinist. She took lessons from one of the best teachers around, had an expensive instrument, went to music camp every summer, and bragged to anyone that was even half listening. I always assumed she was a genius. Recently I finally heard her play... it was an oh-honey-no moment to say the least! Meanwhile, another quiet, unassuming kid I grew up with has toured the world with various orchestras, as a soloist, and has started his own ensemble. The personal nerdrage stems from Michelle being all bark and no bite.

In my experience, female gamers are usually quite welcoming to other girls as long as you don't claim to be better than you are. No matter what your gender, people will always have different levels of proficiency and time they can invest in gaming.

P.S. Human warrior is the default combo on the WoW character creation screen; most throwaway characters & bank alts are human warriors. Also, you can bang out 26 lvls in an afternoon or two, even if you prefer questing to grinding. I hope she has other characters... She's too well known as Ricebunny to think she wouldn't get called out for this one.

P.P.S. I actually like her older videos; I don't watch many guru videos at all anymore, so I can't comment on her recent stuff. I even showed a few in an afterschool workshop I used to teach about cosmetic consumer testing. Lest you think I'm just an out-n-out hater.

Out of curiosity, since you're a beauty blogger and YT'er, what do you think of super young girls calling themselves makeup gurus when it's obvious they haven't even been alive long enough to have enough experience to use that term? You've worked hard to gain your knowledge and expertise, but you get lumped into the same category as a 5th grader with a set of Lipsmackers and a webcam.

I'm not a gamer, all I play is the occasional DS and PS2, but I had to stop by because this was the most epic thing I have ever read.I can't stand girls that try to fit into different subcultures to be 'cool'. My boyfriend is a computer technician, you don't see me running out and picking up a copy of something like 'Inside Computers for Dummies' to try and impress him. I've never really understood changing your entire personality to impress people, though.

I seriously missed your posts while you were gone!

btw, I laughed out loud at the part about taking pictures next to carrots and calling yourself a vegetarian.

You'll have an "AMEN" from me , too. Not to be bragging (uh what am I doing if not bragging?), but take it from the once-best-female-player-on-the-European-servers-of-Guild-Wars (Les Rage Quit [QuiT] back in like..2007 when we were still sistering Clan Detained (dT)^____^), there is absolutely nothing even remotely "chic and nerdy" or hardcore gamer-ish about Michelle.

I love you so much! But I think you're failing to see the point here. Yes, this post is negative, but it is a very personal subject dear to Anastasia's heart. It's not just a hobby, it's her life and commitment.If anything, people who preach, and lie that they're something they're not, especially boasting about it to a 'top-of-the-World' degree, is very insulting.I know that I am insulted by Michelle Phan, especially by all the evidence that supports she isn't this or that, and the fact she seems to use this gaming 'image' as an attention seeking boost to gain male fans or something..

Reading through this post through a completely non-partisan lens I have to say that the rage and arguments found within have little to no foundation and are, at their core, pretty self contradictory.

To start off, who are you ( or myself or anyone else who has posted a comment to this post for that matter )to declare a non-negotiable definition for the term "hardcore". It seems to me that the main drive of this rant is that Michelle declared herself a "hardcore gamer" and Anastasia believes she has the authority to declare this as untrue based on the fact that... she is more hardcore than Michelle? Because she had a tougher life growing up because, based on her interests, she was cast into a less popular crowd? ( Tangent Alert: You and I were made fun of because of our choices to love games when it was not widely accepted. What is truly outrageous and unacceptable in my mind is people being made fun of for things they did not choose. Things they have no control over… Food for thought. ) It seems that Anastasia takes pride in the fact that she was a gamer "before gaming was cool". I see 2 problems with these scenarios she has created.

First, “hardcore”, with relation to gaming, is a term that has no solid definition. If you were raised in an environment where gaming was incredibly prominent, like myself, hardcore would mean that you play games more than just about anything else in life. It means you sometimes shift meals to accommodate a raid schedule and, quite often, compromise a healthy amount of sleep to progress to the next level because of some neat new skill or shiny piece of armor that will come available. But to someone who was raised in an environment that gaming was not nearly as prominent, or non-existent in its entirety, hardcore might mean that you own a gaming system. Or that you play regularly. I don't care who you are, how many betas and alphas you have taken part in, how many 80's you have in WoW, or how many internet memes you are familiar with there is ALWAYS someone who is nerdier and more hardcore than you who will try and say that you are not hardcore because you are not as hardcore as they are.

Second, if you are a true “gamer”, meaning you game for the sake of gaming, and not just someone who is a fan of being a minority and an outcast, you would appreciate that gaming in general is expanding as much as it has. Yes, it can be frustrating to see people claim to be something they are not at times, but the fact is that Michelle games. Whether or not any of you from the vantage point of your self-infatuated “I’ve gamed since before gaming was cool” soap box deems her as “hardcore” is, to be quite honest, irrelevant. Just as any of you think “omfgwtfbbq who is she to call herself a hardcore gamer girl, she is, liek, so totally not” I think, “who the hell are you to say otherwise”. The gamer world is expanding and evolving in more ways than I care to elaborate upon in this post. Whether or not I, or any of you for that matter, agree or like these changes is irrelevant. They are happening regardless and we can either fight them until we are blue in the face, making fun of and cursing at some of the people who hopped on the bandwagon a bit later than others or we can just unleash a resounding “MEH” and continue doing what we all love in the first place. Gaming to our heart’s content.

And, to be quite frank, I cannot fathom the defense that Anastasia is justified in her venom-laced response to Michelle's gamer-ness or lack thereof because "her personal identity has been stolen". Wait, what? Just because someone else plays games and claims that they play enough to be deemed "hardcore" in their eyes, you feel like that is a personal attack against you attempting to pry your identity from you? At what point did Michelle disallow any of you to continue playing your games, progressing your characters and enjoy being whatever "level" of gamer you see yourself as? The fact is that she did no such thing at any point. She is a girl who plays games and is popular enough, for whatever reason(s), to be in the media spotlight, that is all. This is, for better or for worse, nothing out of the ordinary in this day and age. Move along, nothing to see here. I'm sorry for the ladies that enjoyed being a girl gamer back when they weren't as socially accepted but such is life. That is all.

Thank you so much for writing this post. I cannot STAND Michelle Phan. Even though I'm not a gamer myself, I can see how this offends you. She is always trying to impress people, especially guys. She should really learn to be herself.

You're Awesome, she sucks.That Phail blog is hilarious.I know it's hard not to get annoyed when things become so personal to you but seriously, imagine how miserable she is inside and how much she must hate her real self to have to constantly lie and exagerate herself. Go play borderlands, killing Skags with critical hit melee always make me feel better :)

oh my goodness. I sometimes feel like the only person around with a hate-on for this woman (powered by Haterade). I live/grew up in a very Asian community, and I know firsthand how hard it used to be to find beauty bloggers out there who look like us, and had makeup tips that were relatable, due to having similar coloring/eye shapes/etc. Michelle Phan was one of the few, and people just latched on to her and followed everything she said. Not saying that her popularity is solely due to the fact that's she's cute and Asian, of course, but I admit to that being the reason why I personally started flipping through her Xanga (I AM SHALLOW. I KNOW). I noticed that many of her tutorials were paraphrased from beauty tips shared by users of a popular forum, and that lots of her skincare reviews didn't involve much long term testing at all (actually most of them were like, "I've only been using this item for a week, but I'm so excited about it I had to share!!!"). fffffffff rage.

Knowing all that, I was hardly surprised when she claimed to be a geek. Of course I'm pissed that she's exploiting the "geek" and "girl gamer" stereotypes (which every female gamer I know, myself included, HATES. We're not "girl gamers." We're gamers. thanks). She's such a fucking hipster. Her comments on her recent NANA-inspired makeup tutorial especially pissed me off. "Wow, I'm SO SURPRISED how many of you have heard of this thing I'm pretending to like because it's SO OBSCURE YOU KNOW." THEY MADE TWO MOVIES OUT OF IT STARRING AN EXTREMELY WELL-KNOWN SINGER. EVEN IF NOBODY OUTSIDE JAPAN SAW THEM, THE SERIES WAS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. AND SOLD IN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES. ugh fuck youuuuuuu. And it's just as rage inducing as her parading around like a makeup genius. Using instant hot chocolate mix as bronzer is not genius goddammit.

I must admit that I do respect her success though. From Xanga to Lancome? Impressive (especially because she's such a horrid example of the makeup world. aughoghsidslznbvhkdsm)

This is so sad. Honestly. I will never qualify as a geek/nerd. That just simply wasn't my life. However, I do have "nerdy qualities", and a husband that IS a huge gamer. Regardless of who my husband is, it is quite sad that I, a NON-GEEK, can recognize the err in the ways of a wannabe geek/nerd. That's just awful.

@Jen -You don't have to be hesitant to post something that disagrees with me. If someone does, that's their prerogative, I'm not stupid enough to think that everyone who reads my blog agrees with me about everything, and it doesn't upset me when they don't. Spice of life, yadda yadda.

My problem is not that I think she's only a smalltime gamer and not a "hardcore" gamer, and that I consider myself "hardcore" and am thus enraged by her term usage. My problem is that I don't believe she plays games. At all.

She might have played one or two, a few years ago. I eat vegetables once or twice. Doesn't make me a vegetarian.

If she said "Yeah, I'm kind of into video games, I play them sometimes" I'd have ABSOLUTELY no issue with that. If she appeared to have any GENUINE interest in these things, then fine. But she doesn't, or at least has provided NO EVIDENCE that she does, apart from taking pictures of herself NEXT to things that are game related. There's no evidence she plays at all. She's the one who told us her WoW handle.

She's so avid she's a gamer, she makes a video telling people she CARRIES A CONTROLLER AROUND in her purse, when she hasn't touched either system in forever.

My problem isn't "you're not a big enough gamer to consider yourself one" it's "you're lying, you're telling people you're into something you're not, in order to gain the popularity now associated with it".

I love these things. These things are hugely important to me. I'm offended when someone who DOESN'T share that love pretends to in order to make themselves more popular. If I believed that she loved them as you suggested, I wouldn't have this issue, but I don't. I think she's lying, and therein lies the rub.

My last point is that it's not a positive post. It's a rant. Angry rants are rarely positive and aren't supposed to be. If people share my anger, they might feel better if they read it and feel someone else agrees, but other than that, it's not supposed to be positive. I don't write posts aiming to make everyone feel wonderful, or tie ribbons around things and end with a happy outlook on life. When I'm angry, I write about it. I may not be the most well-adjusted person in the world, and if I'm pissed and I write a rant, you can generally expect it NOT to be a feel-good-romp, because angry rants typically aren't.

If people want positivity, my blog really isn't where they should be looking. I'm not a guru, I have never, ever, ever stated that one of my goals is to make people feel happy, put a positive light on things, etc, so I'm a bit baffled by how you came to that as a criticism.

@prettybottles - As I said to Jen, it's a rant. An angry rant. They're not supposed to be positive. It's also not the first rant I've written by far, and I've never, ever claimed to be a positive person, to have any goal of making people feel positive or putting a positive light on anything, so this criticism baffles me.

I think most of your arguments can be addressed with one clarifying point. You say "but the fact is that Michelle games."

My issue is that I don't believe that. I believe that she has, briefly, one or more years ago, played a game or two. She has some evidence of having played the odd game in the past. This doesn't hold up to continually posting pictures of herself next to gaming-related items, telling people she walks around with a controller in her bag, and continually calling herself a gamer/hardcore/nerd/unicorn/whatever.

My issue isn't "You don't play enough games to be counted in our crowd", my issue is "I believe you are lying about having any genuine interest in these things, in order to garner more popularity and enjoy the status that this has".

I have seen no evidence of any present-day or sustained interest in gaming. I don't care if someone isn't a gamer, I don't care if they only play Jenga or Solitaire or if they like Final Fantasy but played Halo and couldn't work out where they were supposed to be pointing the gun. If someone has a genuine interest in games, that's AWESOME, and maybe I can convince them to play Portal and see how great it is.

If someone, however, lies about having an interest in something, repeatedly and enthusiastically, in an attempt to appeal to that crowd, or to gain more popularity in general, then I feel that this demeans those of us with genuine interest. If you read the comments, you'll see that I'm not alone in this belief.

If you and I fundamentally disagree on whether she actually has any genuine or sustained interest in gaming, then we are not going to agree. That's fine, I just wanted to point that out to save an incredibly long argument.

If you've read the blog or tumblr linked to, where they have more examples and discuss the issue further, there's a link there to a forum discussion on GameFaqs, where people are complaining about the fact that Phan is lying about being a gamer. This leads to more people complaining that no attractive, and then that simply no women game, at all. Any girl who's ever played an MMO can attest to the "There are no women on the internet" crap. This is annoying, and it usually persists long past Ventrilo conversations and "post your IRL here" picture threads. Women who pretend to play games for the social perks help encourage this infuriating stereotype.

Last thing I'm going to address is the bullying issue. For some of the people who've commented here, that one is important to them, and I see why. However, if we believed Phan had any genuine interest in games whatsoever, I think they wouldn't mind that she skipped that stage. I don't post in-depth details about my personal history on my blog for a reason, so I'm not going to compare my history to Phan's, and I'll thank you not to speculate in that regard.

I like your idea of just moving along, playing some games and getting over it, and I don't plan on any sleepless nights, drawn-out plans for revenge, or anything like that. That's exactly what I'll be doing. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'd see that this is certainly not the first rant I've written. When I'm angry, my blog is where I channel it, and then I go do something fun, and next day I blog about something else. I'm not alone in this practice.

@Apriltini - Me too! Although I'm wary of MMORPGs that don't let you be healers. I know, we're moving on and everyone can be a one-man tank-healer-DPS trifecta, but I do like the traditional RPG roles and will miss my monk.

@TheCandiedMango -As a PvE player who prefers RPGs, believe me, I know the gamer elitism WELL. If people love games and enjoy playing them, then I am happy. If they don't, still happy. Maybe a bit sadder because they won't be enriched by Portal. If they don't, but lie and say that they are, not happy.

The kind of hierachy exists everywhere in the nerd-world. Different OS and browsers have more nerd-cred than others, and the REAL nerds code their own, and I'm sure science and math geeks argue about this kind of thing, too.

@Tempest - You know, sometimes I want to put you on retainer.The bar-sexual comment (i.e. women who pretend to be bi-sexual in bars to get more attention from men) is brilliant, and I hadn't considered that analogy.

You're right, it's extremely similar. I've seen women in Aion telling people they're bi and giggling to get more attention, too. Ugh. Maybe that's the next step for Phan. Oh, but she can't cause of the whole "hardcore Christian God sends me signs through chicken and rice" thing.

I'd never even call myself bi-curious, because I know that it annoys people in the LGBT community. There are girls I've had crushes on, but I couldn't imagine having a romantic or sexual relationship with a girl, and I'm pretty sure that puts me firmly in the "Straight, but who wouldn't kiss Willow from Buffy?" camp.

@Yuu - I've seen that Nana issue mentioned a few places. I'm gonna admit, I don't know who Nana is. MAYBE I SHOULD DO A MAKEUP TUTORIAL FOR IT. Or, wait, maybe I shouldn't, since I wouldn't know what the fuck I was talking about.

@Internationallyspicy - Even when pokémon hit the UK, I was all "What? No, that's stupid." and carried on playing spy games. I didn't get into it until I got into DBZ. I visited my brother's friend's house, and he had it on Cartoon Network, and I was watching it while I waited for my brother, and got totally hooked. I was a tomboy-ish kid and used to prefer pretending my Barbies got kidnapped, and playing with my brother's Lego and Mighty Max toys instead of my Polly Pockets, becauseseriouslyhowmanytimescanyoubrushsomeone'shair, so seeing cartoons+fighting+action=win.

From then, it was pokémon, digimon, and anything else anime-related, until my mother went crazy and decided it was all evil and demonic and I wasn't allowed to draw anymore.

I'm a pretty weird adult. Sometimes I lie on the floor and look around just to see what it would be like if I were a borrower. I probably shouldn't say that on the internet.

It wouldn't be a robot unicorn army, because then I'd be trying to fight the urge to drive them all purposefully into things to watch them explode, and I bet robot unicorns are friggin' expensive to build, man, that carnage would really eat into my budget.

I'm not a gamer, but I am a fanfic addict. And preppy popular girls like her made my life hell. Only now that we're in our 20s do the popular girls decide that being a geek is cool. Fuck off! >:[ RAGE!!!

Ana, this is why I love reading your blog. It starts off in an angry rant, which I love and totally relate to, and the comments end up with GW speculation, Buffy references, zombies and robots, and the Borrowers. So awesome. :)

It looks like this stirred up some controversy! I've not seen Michelle's videos but I noticed her in this month's Allure magazine, so I will go see what the fuss is all about.

I can understand Ana that you are feeling angry about a niche you identify deeply with is now possibly a marketing exploit by someone who's gained a bit of notoriety. It's akin to someone becoming Jewish because it's 'cool' but never had to deal with anti-semitism or worse, changed their tune for self-gain. Where's the heart?

I also sensed that because you had the same interests when it was a painful flag to wave, it's not fair to have it snatched by someone who didn't earn it and only wants it to further their agenda. It's like, "I bled for this man...don't mock my pain!" It's probably worse that Michelle appears to be from the same mold as those who acted superior and before, put down what they gush over now. It's a bitter pill when the 'haves' steal the thunder, yet again.

I hope that isn't anyone's angle because truly, no one likes a phony. I believe in this era of flash-fame that staying power only occurs for the genuinely talented. I suppose with Ms. Phan, time will tell.

On a personal note, I read the bulk of your post with a heavy feeling. I was on the polar end of the spectrum in school. I don't know if it was any better and I mean that. I was a cheerleader, popular, blonde, and lived in the Valley in Ca and got the homecoming/formal queen votes yada, yada. How much more stereotypical can you get? I even drove a farging sports car. But. And this is a big but- it mostly sucked. There was so much competition and cattiness and subversive emotional drama that I never felt at ease...even if I was 'accepted'. I was lonely a lot. Supposed status aside, I've always been a bit of a sensitive soul and I never understood why anyone got hurt or cornered or picked on. Although I'm smart, I was in awe of people who killed at chess, could play an instrument, or could beat Lagoon on SNES in 2 days (yes, I'm old). With all my so called 'social perks' I was insecure too and believe you me, it's a lot of work to swim in the shark pool and I envied less 'visible' peers in class. They seemed like they were having more fun. I got jokes aimed my way too. Lots of them. And sneers and plenty of 'airhead' jibes. But I also know that it's easy to bear the cross in Prada...I get it. I won't belittle anyone's experiences by playing the 'me too' card..it always falls flat and that's not my intent.

Ana, I'm sorry that ultimately you weren't given a fair shake and it affected you. Same for Cacau (who is enchanting) and anyone else who struggles and gets put down or criticized or knocked about because someone else decided to behave like a pompous prig. Who decided anything was ever 'lame' in the first place? It didn't make sense to me in high school and it doesn't now. I didn't like jerks, whether he was the QB or not. A jerk's a jerk, to me.

Ultimately, we are all people and I won't launch into some big Kumbaya speech...but I wish it were a fair world. Geek or jock, gamer or not, we're all valuable we each deserve respect, wherever our interests lie or hearts are led. And it's a sad day when people glom onto a bandwagon to be 'liked' or self promote.

I remember back in the day when you wanted to get a tshirt with the Transformers logo, Batman, Watchmen, what have you, it required actually going to a specialty store and spending 40-75$ on average for a shirt made of good quality material. In some cases you had to get them custom made. Now it seems like every tweeny store I go to has them on 2 for 30$.

It makes me sick. Now if I wear my vintage custom made Tetris shirt it makes me look like a fangirl, when really I got that shirt because Tetris stole my life for a good six months and to this day is still one of my favorite games, and the only game that can make me want to break delicate things.

If you don't read the comic/play the game what real connection do you have with the story/character/frustration that can ensue from hours of enjoyment? NONE. I agree with you Anastasia, I'm freaking offended.

@TianneMarie - Isn't that always the way? I don't mind people disagreeing with me, although as a rule anyone who's argument boils down to "you're fat/jealous/abitch" I usually delete, because that's not an argument I'm interested in having.

For me, it's less that I endured bullying for this, as it is that I simply don't believe she has any genuine interest in games whatsoever, and seeing someone wrap themselves in the pretence just to gain popularity sickens me. It's pretty insulting to those of us who really DO care, and if the comments are any indication - that's a lot of people.

I think school was probably awful for the vast majority of people. I had a hard time, and only a small portion of that was due to me being a nerd. Isn't Cacau lovely? She has a way with words. She also has a blog (if you click through her profile) and is equally lovely there, as well.

It's interesting to hear that the grass wasn't greener, though, and it makes sense. I think anyone with a brain and the ability to empathise wouldn't enjoy being in that crowd.

@ardorrequiem -Ugh, yes. I was so thrilled to get my custom-made periodic table hoodie, and even that isn't sacred anymore. You're right, Batman etc have been whored out to highstreets, to sit next to faded Muppet and Sesame Street shirts.

Lying about your personality is just like stealing someone else's work and posting it as your own. Any attention you get from it is ultimately hollow. I don't get why she bothers.

As a lesbian and a geek, I've had two of the biggest parts of my identity taken and whored out by the masses - these days I'm afraid to approach a girl who claims to be bi because more than once they have looked shocked and confused and stammered out an embarrassed confession of their actual sexuality.

And then just a year after this we find these types of girls planning their trips to our local convention, but laughing their asses off at you when they overhear you planning the cosplay you'll be making for it. It's like, "If any of the hot nerdy boys you're trying to impress heard you making fun of one of them, you wouldn't exactly be welcome through those gates."

Did you know that one of the manager's of the three Twilight stars (Bella, Edward and Jacob) were directed to go to ComicCon because it's like appearing on SNL, but for geeks. Twilight. At. ComicCon. No. Nonononono.Then someone who manages Stewart commented that she'd LOVE to be a real geek, but can't, because there's nothing geeky about being "hot, young, famous, and dating one of Hollywoods most fanciable studmuffins" or something ridiculous. Facepalm.

I had someone overhear me talking about D&D and leap in with, "Oh! I love that! I'm always on that at the arcade" thinking I meant DDR. Faiiiil.

@Kara - I wonder if my blog is something new, too. It has many rants, not just this one, and they're all bitchy. If you don't like this, you won't like the rest. What isn't rants, is me talking about what's nifty. There's a little of both, because not everything has to be filled with glowing positivity. That's the whole point of a rant.

If you're categorically opposed to the idea of a rant, you possibly shouldn't read things that are tagged as such.

/ <3?!? did you do that on purpose? Veterans have no issue with people who get into new things, it's just annoying when people (especially those in the public eye) intentionally misrepresent themselves and outright lie to us claming to be something they aren't.

I'm not Spanish, but I could take pictures of myself in outfits that are associated with Spanish culture and pretend because I convince enough ignorant people that I look it. I'd get called put eventually but that isn't the point. The point is be yourself, and don't degrade the identities of others of you're too weak to know who you are. We have every eight to rant. If you don't like it read something else.

Oh, yeah I knew that. But I always assumed that ComicCon was just, like, where you went when you were a celebrity in a sci-fi/fantasy movie or TV show. I've never really paid much attention because it looks so awesome that I know I'll just end up pining for it.

Last year at the convention I was talking about, these guys were handing out free movie tickets to see the Twilight movie, but you don't pull that shit on nerds in New Zealand - see, we're always behind on trends and so Geek Chic hadn't yet settled in, and all the girls they were offering them to gave them really disgusted looks. But I guess if you got one of the stars in NOW... lord, I wouldn't bother going.

Hahah, really? Ahh I would have died laughing. I can't really decide whether this ordeal is more infuriating or amusing, because of those little moments where they get caught out.

@BizbUzz - There was a buttload of Twilight shit at Armageddon this year. I don't think I'd bother going if they brought one of those guys in either... as much as I love it, I don't think I could handle the masses of squealing fangirls/boys running around. I don't think they would though, to be honest. I hope.

Going with the twilight-in-unexpected/unnecessary places, in a case of what I can only describe as sheer awesomeness, at the last local anime convention I went to, there was only one bit of Twilight nonsense that I spotted. It was a t-shirt with Bela Lugosi's Dracula holding Edward Cullen's head and the text underneath read "Bela and Edward. The sparkling. Ends. Now." I bought one. Along with a few other unexpected and delightful surprises from that same vendor. He was awesome.

@Holly - I absolutely am! So are quite a few readers, too. When we get closer to release, maybe I should make an excited post about it and see if we can get everyone to hop on the same server (I'll be playing a US server, instead of European, personally, since on European ones everyone speaks German and I live on US timescale anyway) and we can play together and stuff!

I'm always jealous of those guilds who are like "Yeah we all know each other from like 8 other games and you will never ever feel welcome", I WANT ONE OF THOSE.

I have some Aion buddies who are excited for GW2 as well. I loved GW, I don't know that I could fault it (except the obvious wtf with the Togo-tree-death and his annoying behaviour thing, oh, and Nightfall was kinda...eccchhhh) except to say that it wasn't really an MMO, but then, they said it wasn't. So yeah.

Anyway. YES. Excited. I play Aion atm but as a PvE player the game doesn't hold longterm appeal for me, cause it's all very much gank 'n' zerg and no PvE end-game content.

i dont like Phan, cos she cant do makeup at all . i dont understand why shes so popular. Pixiwoo on youtube should have that many suscribers, cos they are talanted and works at real photoshoots. I 100% know that Phan dont do her own makeup when it comes to photography and events.

ooh! that'd be awesome :D it'll be fun figuring it out with others ~ the new skill combinations & stuff look MF'ing awesome!lol! I play on the US one too ^^ there's never enough ppl on the euro one x:

I know aye!? some guild are so close knit & chatting away on guild chat & I'm just like "ehh... should I ask my question or.. let them continue their convo..."

I was curious about aion when it came out but I wasn't too sure about paying fees x: which is why I love the idea of GW <3Yeah I'm really into the PvE aspect when i play ^^ I like to be able to do my own thing at my own pace etc. ganking D: do not want.

omfg NF missions are a nightmare... well.. some are. lolright now I'm just trying to fill up my HoM for the shiny items for GW2 lol!!heaps excited~ :3

I've been watching Youtube makeup tutorials for years and when I first started I came across some of her videos and to be honest I couldn't stand her. She came across to me as a very fake person.

I've played video games since I was about 7 years old. Street Fighter and Golden Axe were my two favourite games when I was younger. Since then I have played on nearly ever major console apart from the GameCube partly because I grew up with two brothers and both of them are major gamer geeks.

I wouldn't call myself a Hardcore gamer but I do really enjoy playing when I have the time. I used to play video games alot more in the past than I do nowadays. I went through the RuneScape phase of spending nearly all day and sometimes well into the morning playing..

I was a massive fan of Halo online and even met a now ex boyfriend on there. He was in the Praetoria Guard.

I'm a girl and I like to play video games but unlike Michelle Phan I don't mention it to every guy I've ever met because thats just like saying - "Look at me! Look at me! I'm a gamer girl, I'm so rare" - There are millions of female fishies swimming around in that big virtual sea of gaming, so why boast?

You took some of the words out of my mouth. Implode a girl and I've been playing games since I was 2 when I started on Sonic 3 on the Sega Megadrive. I spent my childhood playing N64 and the Playstation. Because of this, I've had a lot of guy friends and games are a large part of my daily life, despite being heavily busy with college work. But the thing that annoys me, is that most girls think that because they're playing a game specially made for girls or wii fit, that they are a gamer. For me, this annoys me. I call myself a gamer because it's what I do. I play Rpgs, Action/Adventure/having to think logically type games and a few shooters. I mention a game and a guy will instantly want a better conversation with me about them, they get said conversation. While other girls can say that they're gamers when they play the type of games I described and they're like "I'm such a geek heheheh please love me". And it's all to get attention from guys. And when they play games they're completely ovblivious as to what they should do. I know this is a ramble but things like girls making fake personalities for attention, particularly from males pisses me off. Especially when they call themselves geeks and gamers whfn you know they're not.

You like make-up AND video games, just like me ;D therefore you win! I've been playing video games since I was 5 or so, and I loved it ever since. I even wanted to design video games at one point, but I'm more the type of person that just wants to play it, perfect it, keep up with the news of new releases, buy games from older systems that I never got to play before, cosplay the characters and attend gaming conventions and stuff like that. I don't know if that's considered "hardcore" or not, but I do lose track of the time when I'm playing a game because I get addicted XD

ANYWAY, I agree A LOT with your post... Why is it that the ones who made fun of the "nerds" (or even "otaku") are suddenly interested in our subculture and labeling themselves as such because, "It's cool." NO NONONONONONONO!! You don't get to do that!

I was a little estranged from Michelle when I saw the first real video on her "gaming" channel with Swoozie where she fought him in SSF IV and CHEATED. THAT right there pissed me off. I was like "What a cunt." Also, you should have mentioned the fact that if she were as hardcore as she says she is, then she would know not to unnecessarily stack 2 xbox 360s on top of one another because they will overheat one another, hence the red ring of death. *sigh* ANY gamer, no matter how "harcore" they are at least knows THAT fact.

Thank you for sticking up for us girl gamers out there. It does mean a lot... especially the pretty ones that like both makeup AND games at the same time. So... YOU WIN ;D

Btw, since I don't play MMORPGs, I had no idea wtf QQ moar meant until today xD hahaha<3

@Ronja - Well, the only makeup looks I've seen her do on others have been pretty awful, so I'm not sure if she does them herself or not. But yeah, she's really not... very good. At anything.

@Holly - I thought GW 2 was going to have fees? I could be wrong though, I haven't been keeping updated on the news. I stopped playing GW when I felt like I'd completed it all. I still hadn't maxed out my titles, but without any new content left it felt pretty grindy. And UGH. NIGHTFALL. Hi, do harder stuff for less reward! What?Dervishes were cool though.

@Vain - Thanks. From the response I'm surprised by how many people think along similar lines, I guess we're all frustrated by fake people trying to usurp our status.And omg! Another Golden Axe fan! All the other gamers I know all grew up with Nintendo, my sis and I were the only SEGA freaks I knew. I started with Alex the Kidd on the Master System, then when we got a Mega Drive, it was Sonic 1, 2, Sonic and Knuckles (KNUCCKLESSS<3) etc. We had a gamegear, too, and had Golden Axe and Street Fighter on that.

My favourite retro console is probably the SEGA Saturn, 'cause I adored Nights Into Dreams. Haven't played it on the Wii, but I heard bad things about it, which is sad.

I met my ex in Ragnarok Online, too. He gave me his puppy hat, and I was hooked. Haha.

@Sir Charles - Why thank you ^_^;

@Jasmine - I loved the Megadrive! I started with the Master System but I was obsessed with Sonic 2 & Sonic and Knuckles (mostly played with the Sonic 2 cart in, so I could rock Sonic 2 as Knuckles, cause gliding = the shit). Most kids I knew had Nintendos, but we grew up as a SEGA household. The first Nintendo system I owned was a Gameboy Colour, when I got hooked on the original pokémon games, in fact.

And yeah, I'm right there with you - but I guess the rant made that pretty clear.

@SEIRAN - Haha, thank you? If you stick around you'll see A LOT of my regular readers & commenters are massive nerds as well as make-up lovers. When I started L&L I thought it was a really bizarre combination, but apparently it's a lot more common than I thought. Which is wonderful, it's great to meet like-minded people, as opposed to irritating posers whose idea of gaming is Nintendogs.

LOL I had to ask my friend what Nintendogs lmao That's another thing. I usually only pay attention to games/genres I actually give a crap about (RPGs, action, survival horror/horror, fps, fighting, etc.) instead of those cutesy games. But I lol'd hard when he told me about it being like the Tamagachi of dogs for DS XD

Anyway, I thought it wasn't common either (the whole makeup/fashionista gamers crowd) because almost every girl gamer I meet gives me dirty looks or criticizes me because I wear makeup and like to look pretty for myself while I'm intentionally going to a crowd where there will be video games. That's another thing. Maybe you could make a rant about this. I would love to hear your input! ;D

It's because of people like Michelle that the girlier ones like us, gamers/nerds that ARE authentic, ones that don't feel the need or are too lazy to brag about what we like, are getting criticized and stereotyped as "fakes" for the simple fact that we wear makeup and dress fashionably. I think that's a load of bullshit if you ask me. Why can't I wear lipstick, wear awesome clothes that don't consist of a t-shirt and jeans and kick ass in Tekken? [On a side note, I loved playing as Eddy when I played the third Tekken but I got attached to Hwarang, Nina and Yoshimitsu the most] Honestly, she's giving the makeup-loving female gaming community a VERY bad name -.-+

It's like, "What the hell? So I have to look like a fat and ugly tomboy with pit stains in my shirts and acne while playing my old ps1 games on my ps2 and my xbox and/or ps3 games to be considered a gamer? Geeze -.-+ It's called being a girl jackass!"

I play Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and love horror & mystery games. Mostly I'm frightened to play games like Fatal Frame and Resident Evil now but enjoy to watching my boyfriend play it so I can hide in the covers. I mostly dress and do makeup like Gyaru-kei. So whenever people find out that I like these games they're really surprised. O:I know for sure that I have played more games and spend more hours playing than Michelle. But never in my life have I said that I'm a (hardcore) gamer or a geek. And I wouldn't dare! As I didn't even know what WOW or MMORPG stands for until my friend told me hahaha. If you really love gaming you don't have to proof it so eagerly...It's a bit too much.

My boyfriend and I have differing opinions as to what makes a real hardcore gamer. To him, it's about what it is: soft aim vs. twitch, console vs. pc, Halo vs. Unreal Tournament, etc. To me, it's all about intensity... if you can live, breathe and dream Zelda for 15 hours a day, to me that makes you as much as a hardcore gamer as any NewEgg champion. But I know for a fact that Michelle Phan doesn't fall into even my rather lax standards of 'hardcore'.

Well, I work in the games industry, and I can tell Michelle (and anyone else that's aspiring in that direction) that it's probably not the double rainbow supergasm experience she's expecting. It's a job with ups and downs like anything else, y'know?

"Some of us wear our geekdom as a badge of countercultural pride, long before it was cool, and endured, because we believe that things like sharks, lasers, pirates and ninjas are seriously awesome and that you won't be fucking laughing when we finish building our robot army."

I totally get the ranting. I'm not really a gamer, but I *am* a software engineer, and I work for a games company. And it really gets my goat when people label themselves "geeks" because they like to play with their Apple products. Geek has become a by-word for modern and down with technology - which is plain bullshit.

I proudly write code for a living and for fun. That makes me a geek. Playing with an iPhone does not make you a geek.

I wasn't going to comment as I didn't think it was a big issue. Unfortunately the other day I heard a girl on the bus talking to a boy about how "Yah, everyone at work asks me about games. I'm like, the game girl. Yah, and like the new Samsung phone is totally better than the the iPad, you know, if you wanna like, be all nerded-out." She then proceeded to talk about some kind of costume event where "Yah, like you know Star Wars? All the guys dressed as the bad guys stood on one side of the room, and like, all the good guys stood on the other side of the room."

AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGHHH. I don't understand this! Why is it suddenly popular for people to pretend to be nerdy?

Aside, I know it's a mythology thing but Mjolnir is also the name of the ULTIMAATEEEE mace in Ragnarok Online. My priest had one and it was pretty sweet, even if it did weigh a ton and meant I could carry fewer blue gems.

My opinion: I don't care what you wear, what you look, what gender you are. If you suck at games, then you just suck at games, no matter how fashionable, "nerd looking", or self-credited you are. Looks have nothing to do with this, it's girls like Michelle Phan that somehow make appearance relevant to your skills as a gamer. Well, it always has been in terms of what the stereotypical nerd looks like, but you have girls like Michelle Phan shoving it in your face that she wears nice(cough) clothes and is an expert at "___"(basically anything game related). I already think that's annoying, but what's worse is she's actually a terrible gamer. Now girls who happen to dress like 'normal' girls, however you want to determine that, are automatically judged and dismissed by gamers that consider cosplay and tshirts saying "i love (insert video game/anime character here)" required attire. This stupid stereotype has to stop, and this goes for every girl that so annoyingly wants to bring their fashion sense and appearance interests into gaming: IT ISN'T RELEVANT. It's insulting personally for a girl to make a big deal about being girly and gaming at the same time; even if they are really good gamers it's like insulting every other gamer, saying "I'm special because every other subcreature who plays videogames is hideously unfashionable."

I dunno, I think if 'girl gamers' want to do their part, they should keep doing what they're doing but focus more on gaming than sticking up for girls who game, you're shooting yourself in the foot at this point. As women there are no REAL barriers against gaming(females aren't prohibited), it's just prejudice cycled by stupid beliefs that girl gamers and guy gamers are very different, when you're playing the same f*ckin game. It's things like that that make me hate even going into a video game store: should I feel nervous about being judged or do I have to stand up for looking girly and still playing videogames just to shove it to people? No, leave me the f*ck alone and let me shop/game in peace.

The 'gamer girl' tag in general is pointless, in my opinion. I get it, you're a girl, go on and say something about gaming, I don't care about what your favorite designer is. Not to say that you can't blog about both, but they're too irrelevant to be grouped together. It's like saying, 'I love to read AND hang out with my friends, impressive huh?'

Michelle Phan's biggest crime(concerning gaming) is how she goes on and on about how awesome she is at gaming and when she is actually really terrible. Rather than wasting our time feeling offended by Michelle Phan, I think we should stick with trolling her game channel simply because she doesn't know what she's talking about. That seems fair to me. The defense that 'oh she loves videogame is that a crime' is dumb; it's one thing to say 'i <3 games', but to first review games that she obviously never finished playing and then create her own gaming channel is another, then she better know her shit.

LOL. im not a gamer but i have a friend who is totally gamer!!! i mean she plays WOW like a boy...she very tomboyish too... i mean there are times when we go clubbing, instead of getting ready she is playing wow and the last 30 mins she rush to get ready! now that is what i call a gamer!! (she does everything in between too...stay up til the wee morning... u name it!)

I think we're all much better off not worrying about what other people are doing and just focusing on ourselves.

I get your point about her pretending and your rants are hilarious. But the comment thread has kind of been reduced to people ranting about everything from gamers/non-gamers to hipster glasses to which t-shirts people should be allowed to wear. Seems like you guys have a lot of rules you want others to follow - almost like those 'popular' kids in high school did. It's two sides of the same coin: the same damaging, judgmental behavior.

This is absolutely fucking brilliant, you just completely annihilated every ounce of that lying wench's "personality".

I'll admit I was drawn in by all the tutorials and stuff too then it was like yeahhh shes all vegetarian and shit but she uses animal tested products ... DID I MISS SOMETHING HERE O.o suddenly this animal loving, god fearing, veggie eating, "gamer chick" has lost all her original claims for monies.

If she was a real gamer she would be posting more fraps and less tutorials >.>

I agree though when those leeching little whores try to come on our games and flirt with the men in guilds and stuff to get things ... i've dealt with many and wouldn't hesitate with another one O.o

It's like yeahhh we have enough ingame dramas without all the shit with "relationships" to deal with *sighs*

It'll only be so long until Michelle makes one really big fuck up everyone really WILL hate her and she will just be like "oh noes i don't gotsch no monies anymore" and disappear from the web... hopefully. Not from the world that would just be mean but if she could go and sit quietly in an empty room and never come back that would be good too :D

Hi Anastasia,I just came across this entry of your randomly because I was interested in what people had to say about Michelle Phan. But I came out of this article questioning myself instead of Michelle Phan. I understand your frustration about posers trying to label themselves as something they are not just for attention and because it is "cool." However, I guess I want to know what you consider a "gamer" to be? Do gamers have to have logged in a number of hours to be called a gamer? Or play a certain number of times a week? If you didn't play for some time, would you revoke your claim that you are a gamer? etc etc. I always considered myself a gamer, but I am ashamed of the fact that I haven't played in a while, and that I haven't played some of the best games out there. I play occasionally, but when I do play, I have a deep passion and great intense loyalty/feelings towards the culture i am submerging myself in (whether it be the character I am, the world the game is set in, etc). I suppose this makes me more of a "nerd" than a "Gamer."

Anyway, I guess I just feel like this blog entry of yours was written a little bit strong simply because now after reading this, I feel abandoned by fellow gamers. I definitely do not fit in with those who don't like gaming, don't play at all, or don't appreciate gaming. But now your writing suggests that I perhaps don't qualify to be part of this gaming subculture either (even though I feel most at home here), and am even at risk of being labeled as a wannabe and fake poser because I don't enough games or don't play often enough.

In my life, relative to my environment and surroundings, I am a gamer. I went to a well-off all girls private school back in highschool, and I was considered both the gamer and the jock (having interests and passions that seemed to have not been common amongst my female classmates). Now, that is not to say that I don't think I could be a better embodiment of "gamer," and that I don't respect you for being closer to the epitome of "gamer" than I'll ever be, but I just hope that you will consider that some of us just have a different kind of social norm/environment where the definitions are a not as "clear." Also, sometimes these things just weren't accessible to me.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know my feelings after reading this, and hope that you understand. In the end I think its the "labels" that kills all the fun here.

A - I'm sorry you feel that way, I really thought I answered this concern already in the edit.

"For clarification, the source of my rage isn't "you don't play enough games to justify being called a gamer/hardcore gamer" it's "you are repeatedly and pervasively lying about having any genuine or sustained interest in gaming at all in order to benefit for the social status now attached to it."I don't hate people who don't game, game a little, hate gaming, or only play Jenga. I hate people who pretend to like something they don't, something which I deeply love, in order to make themselves look "cool". If you believe that she actually does play, and enjoy games, then you and I will continue to disagree, and the world will keep spinning."

I don't care about terminology. I don't play Halo - I prefer RPGs to FPS and I didn't play my Xbox for a year because it was in storage and I prefer MMORPGs.

Anyone who GENUINELY loves games, is wonderful. Even if they only play occasionally, I wouldn't mind them calling themselves a gamer. You're still a gamer at heart even if life got in the way and you haven't caught up with the most recent releases, it's still a hobby and something you love.

My problem with Michelle is that she's actively lying in order to take a place in a subculture which isn't hers. THAT I dislike and that's what this post is about.

If you genuinely love gaming, even if you don't get to do it as much as you'd like to, don't worry about it. You're just a grown-up gamer with responsibilites and other things to do XD

Sigh. Speaking of MPhan and WoW, she was like a human warrior or something... anyway, she posted a screenshot of her "on her gryphon" when it was totally clear from the angle that the gryphon flew that it was a taxi!!!! AND I think it was over fucking westfall or something. FAIL!

As a self proclaimed geek it's refreshing to read a blogger who knows a thing of two about technology and isn't afraid to put someone in their place.

Being a geek is part of my identity because I grew up building computers and following the tech news and trends. The new trend of nerd-cool really irks me because we get people like Michelle. She makes a joke out of something I enjoy doing and I make a hobby out of.

It's fine if she's a casual gamer. (like myself, although I do play a little more then your average person... especially right now *cough* Fallout New Vegas *cough*) She should just portray herself that way.

My real gruff is with geek though since I don't believe being a gamer necessarily equates to geekiness. It's a separate rant altogether but I remember on her twitter she mentioned something about correcting someone that 1000kb is 1mb and was all "Wooo I'm such a nerd"... yeah that really got to me.

Hey, ummmm...I don't want to be mean or anything, but you really shouldn't write about things you don't have solid proof on...Not to be agressive or anything, but you shouldn't write mean things about someone you don't know personally...

And the sentence where you said that Michelle was stealing your culture doesn't make any sense...I'm sorry, but she can't really be stealing your culture if she doesn't even know you in the first place...And, culture isn't something really stolen...Plus, anyone can be a gamer/makeup lover/popular. It's not just you, so don't delude yourself into thinking you're the only one out there and that anyone else out there are just stealing your culture.

Seriously, I'm not a fan of either of you, but I think you should consider how Michelle might feel if she reads this. How would you feel if a complete stranger posted a whole bunch of vile things(regardless of whether or not they're real or not) about you? How yould you feel if hundreds of other complete strangers read it and commented that they agreed too? I, for one, would feel seriously offended.

And, again, I'm not trying to insult you. I'm just giving my un-bias opinion on what I feel about this.

Maybe Michelle is feeding us all lies, maybe she's just a devil in disguise. But that still gives you no right to post things about a person you don't know.

P.S. I'm sorry if this sounds really repetitive to you. I just want to get my point across...Sorry!

Let's be perfectly honest, I just found this article. I completely agree, being an avid gamer. In my world, a gamer is someone who almost has no time for other activities, so I have no idea how she can promote a line of make-up and still clock up the hours on any game at all, even Pac-Man, cause you gotta admit, that shit's addictive. While I'm not a big fan of online MMORPG's, (I hate WoW), I clock up huge amounts of hours playing SP RPGS like Dragon Age Origins and Oblivion. There is no way you can tear yourself away from these games to take a photo of yourself playing them. NO WAY. Except if it involves food. Now, I'm no geek, but I love games. And please, Michelle Phan, don't ruin them for me by saying you're one of an elite subculture of people dedicated to gaming. You do NOT know what hardcore is. And yes, we are damn elitist. Cause if you spend a helluva lot of time on something, you're gonna wanna think that it means something, and not that someone out there can casually take your status as part of a cultural elite and use it to spruce their image. I mean, come on.

Not a follower Anastasia, in fact this is the first time I've even visited your blog, but considering what I just read, yep, I'll be coming back every few days/weeks just to see what else you're hatin' on. :)

When I was young, I only had nes 8bit with Megaman and Tiny Toons. And I think I got myself a ps1 when I was 18 or something. In middle, I've been the geek. I was a (and still am) a math freak, played rpg (with pen and paper people. <3), larped, was the weird girl in the bunch and got bullied about that alot.Since I got the playstation, I went thru FF's, watched my ex-husband play Silent Hills and Project Zeros. I was scared to play them first, wasn't sure how I'd master the movement and such, but from then I've played them all thru. At 18 I got my own PC which ofc meant going thru Monkey Islands, generally all Lucas arts games, some random rpgs. I've played a variety of games, the easypeasy stuff like sims to Wow, Silent Hill and such.I'm still a movie geek, a serie geek, book geek, whatnot. But I don't go advertise it to everyone. I actually keep it alot to myself, if there isn't a talk about games. Because I still get shit talking about games or whatnot, sadly as it is.I guess I could call myself a hardcore pve wow player, I play about 8 hours a day at least. But I don't. It seems such an attention whore stunt everytime a girl goes shouting out for.I've watched a few of MP videos and I think watching the infamous Gaga video made me think "Wth.... How does the girl get so much viewers, that is crappy." And seeing the "gamer" video part just made me go "Nooooo. No. Just. No."I can see the appeal on being a shoutout gamer girl. If you have a lowself esteem, the fanbase of nerd guys will help with it. You might even get people to buy you things (I have this kind of a girl in our guild...). But man does it bring crap to the actual playing girls. So much prejudice - because of these girls.

Thanks for making the rant, I know the feeling completely.

And for the people that complain about our prejudice - we've had to deal with it too much. It doesn't really makes us be open about everyone. You can be open but not naive to the people out there that exploit these kinda things.

(I have another girl in guild that plays mmorpgs just so she could "pimp" them out. Aion was soooooooo nice, lot of pretty clothes like. And she also goes about how her bank is full of different green crap just cause they "look so nice!" UGH. Headache!)

Wow. I can understand the heart of the rant, even if it's not personal to me. I don't watch youtube gorus, and my enjoyment of games and gaming is a fairly minor part of my identity.

All of the persecution I've had has come from other things. I've been the girl trying to enter the boys-club MANY times.... I've been ostracized by ALL of my peers for a variety of reasons. But gaming has NEVER been one.

Being excluded, or fearing being excluded is a part of EVERYONES lives. The real challenge is in seeing how you handle it.

And I agree with the commenter who sad that MichellePhan might have turned out to be quite an awesome person.... but now we'll never know because she has refused to develop an identity, only mimic others to capitalize on their acceptance.

On to the gaming things. Am I the only one who things that subscription based online gaming was the end of the world for the adventure RPG? I REFUSE to play WoW or similar online games, though I played Ultima Online in my teenage years. Really, the only games I LIKE playing are very heavily plot based RPGs. Kings Quest series, Laura Bow, Gabriel Knight and other old sierra classics.... The Dig, Ultima, Diablo..... I've gotten fairly decent at getting this stuff running on an emulator! As far as modern games, I love them, but only if I'm watching. I enjoy Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Dead Space, Elder Scrolls, Fallout,Infamous, those sort of VERY story heavy things!

It bothers me that there's so few games like that being made because it's more profitable to keep expanding the online format.

I understand what you are saying and why it would upset you but maybe her accounts don't list a ton of activity because she changed her user name. She has over a million subscribers now and getting game invites and messages while playing would be a pain in the ass. That is just an idea as to why it looks that way. I'm only pointing this out because I have been on the side of the fence where some "hardcore gamer girls" gossiped bullied and blacklisted me because I was "using nerd status to get a guy' when really I just did things differently than them. It seems silly to get so upset over something that doesn't directly affect you and your day to day life.

I refer you to this post - http://www.lipsticksandlightsabers.com/2010/11/rant-rant-rant.html

Which I wrote just for people like you. I'd also like to remind you that this is my blog, and thus home to my opinions and concerns, and not yours. Perhaps you should post your own concerns on your OWN blog, and not mine.

yo, i don't even back this type of post and honestly hated it to begin with.. but niki you sound like an idiot. it's not 'good looking' of you to go to someone elses blog and tell them what to do ie. 'look up blogger's privacy policy, honey' or some condescending shit like that. also, of course she invites any and all comments, but she's clearly stated she'll remove the ones that suck and aren't conducive to the discussion. i am a fellow blogger and would like to see people getting along as much as anyone else... but if something you read on tha interwebz pisses you off, you've got the right to step away, cool down, and move on.

Thanks for the defence, Pretty, especially as I know you're not a fan of net-negativity. You're right, though, the IP address was logged and comments deleted after the attempts at being condescending. My space, she can get off it, etc.

Shouldn't you be in bed by now. Don't you have to go to school tomorrow? Does your mom know you're up? There goes your internet privileges. You had your lil moment on "efagz" as your platform. You can go away now.

I love you. This is so true. I used to like Michelle Phan but I have no idea what happened to her.Fuck girls who steal geek culture. When I was eleven I taught myself HTML. Now preppy girls are bragging about playing COD and being obsessed with Star Wars. I want to keel alllll of the.

i'm 29 years old i've been playing games since I could afford the demos of doom and GTA from magazine front covers (when they were made out of pixels)and then in the early 2000's I got into a gaming clan for medal of honor breakthrough where I was one of two women which was fun and we played in a lague and then went on to play other games like BF Veitnam Counter Strike CS, guild wars to name a few.

I've never once classed myself as a hardcore gamer and I love playing games always have done since the days I had a atari ST lol (I'm old get over it :D)

But yes suppose the small point is Michell Phan is just a gamer end of there's nothing HARDCORE about playing computer games or having all the consoles you can get (Bosting about such things mean you have a huge ego that needs stroking)

The day Michell becomes hardcore is the day she becomes a professional gamer and if people know anything about gaming most live in South Korea.

Anyway I shut up now I'm glad you wrote this sorry that it's so long but I just wanted to maybe prove a point or something lol

This is an interesting post about someone I've actually never heard of but it raised an interesting point for me.

I'm not sure I totally understand the concept of pretending you're into stuff so people will think you're cool, or more specifically, pretending you're into games so boys will like you. In my experience, and having also worked in a videogame shop previously, my presence there was either met with cynicism, mysoginy or outright rude and abusive lewd comments. Do not want.

I know exactly where you're coming from, and when you're part of the subculture it stings when other people elbow their way in to cash in on it in the popularity stakes, when in fact the reason you liked it in the first place is because you LIKED it and because it was GOOD or INTERESTING, not because you thought other people would think you were COOL for liking it. I once knew a girl who read three of my Deadpool comics and then proceeded to tell a guy she fancied how much she loved comics and how much she knew about them. I wish I'd never let her read them, because the worst part comes when you feel as though your hobby (be it gaming, comic books, anime/manga, trainspotting - whatever!) is not being appreciated properly, where someone isn't showing it the interest or respect it deserves. If you want to dabble, dabble. Hell, the more the merrier. But don't cheapen it.

I just wana play the devils advocate and sayyy that after being a girl gamer since i was 12 .. (21 now) I just appreciate how it's more accepted now and I can be more confident in the fact I play video games. I also play Guild Wars, used to play lil bit of WoW, SWG, etc, but I always felt ashamed to talk about it with my friends. These days everyone has Xbox live so it's not as weird anymore. Everyone and their mom plays wow.. so yeah. But she def isn't a true gamer... you need to play every night all summer til 6 am hah. I'm kinda glad I'm over that phase of addiction.. until d3 comes out and I will have no life . haha

I have spent the last, oh, fourteen years of my life as a casual gamer (I used to be more into it when I was younger) and this shit pissed me off. I HATE fakers.

I've watched a couple of her tutorials out of curiosity, and honestly, it's nothing special. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

That being said, I don't mind that "Geek Chic" is becoming more prevalent. Just so long as you know what it is you're advertising and you have at least a passing relationship with it- I've only watched two Star Wars movies in my life (not too fond of them but I have a brother) and I have a couple of Star Wars shirts. I don't play Halo but I LOVE Red Vs. Blue and proudly wear my Caboose shirt. Hell, I even chose my glasses because they were sort of nerdy-looking.

I've spent my entire life being treated like shit for my interests, whether it be video games, books, movies, or music. Recently I formed a serious interest in Steampunk and have met only one person IRL that REALLY knows what it is. It's tough to have esoteric interests.

But acceptance only goes so far. So from someone who understands the level of vitriol people have for the "weird kids", I HEAR YOU.

Unfortunately we can't make Michelle Phan disappear. But you have cooler fans anyway, and you're much more fun to follow!

I'm not sure if you'll ever read this but I want to let you know that I totally get where you're coming from.

I'm not a huge video game nerd. I know about stuff and enjoy talking to people who are into that stuff. But I can still comiserate. I was constantly picked on for being just a "nerd" for most of my school life. Constant bullying, rude notes in my desks, people shoving me into walls, the works- all because I spent recess reading or drawing (which is my passion) instead of playing in the monkey bars like everyone else. And now it's a trend to be nerdy and different. It also seems to be a trend to appear "artsy" and shit, which pisses me off because it's something that I've been into pretty much all of my life but people have been picking it up within the past three years or so and people fall for it! It pisses me off like this whole Michelle thing does for you. In a way she's an attention whore by posting things like that, posting sleazy pictures of herself and complaining about perverted comments, and showing off all her expensive things.

I don't mean to sound rude, and I know you were ranting when you wrote this post but..

Who are you to stomp all over someone's past?

Okay, I must say that I do agree with the outrage, 'nerd is the new cool', and such.. but was it really necessary to add insult to injury? At first I was against this rant, but then I realized a lot of the content is true. Such as the attention seeking Michelle does, etc.

The argument you assume is most definitely, valid, but another thought worth considering is how much fact you can use in it.

You say; "I grew up a geek, it has shaped who I am, I got bullied because of it..."Verses Michelle's past. Perhaps the WAR, her PAST has shaped who SHE is. Perhaps, her past is a result of what she does. You really can't say "I suffered all this when I was in high school and Michelle's walking all over it!" when you're saying "Boohoo, nobody cares about your childhood misfortunes, get over it". Truly, it is worth considering whether you are being slightly hypocritical. I'm sorry for being rude, I'm just posting an honest opinion on what I think.

To the comment above, She never had all the glory and riches as a child, and she's made a good fortune in the fashion industry. If you'd made that much money, you'd do the same. I know this for a fact because it's exactly what someone in my family has experienced. "From rags to riches."

I appreciate that your comment is well thought out and polite, but I think you've misunderstood, or perhaps I misunderstand your complaint. My disgust at the sob story "she wasn't rich as a kid" isn't a related thought to "she wasn't bullied as a kid for being a nerd, I was". This part of your comment:

"You say; "I grew up a geek, it has shaped who I am, I got bullied because of it..."Verses Michelle's past."

Is incorrect. Those two aren't supposed to be related thoughts. My nerd-bullying is related to the fact that she isn't a real nerd and is only pretending to be, it's a separate thought to the article discussing her not-so-tortured past. I don't generally discuss my past on my blog because it's personal and I'm not a fan of blubbering out sob stories to get attention. My complaint at the article's attempt to show her as some struggling heroine rising from a difficult childhood stems from my own childhood, which actually WAS difficult - and not because of being bullied for being nerdy. I come from a very abusive background which led to me being estranged from my family, and I know friends who suffered abusive parents and lived in abusive households as well, or lost their parents at a young age. That's a tragic story, not "Well we weren't rich", and I think it's insulting to anyone with real tragedy in their lives to have that bullshit painted as a tragic childhood.

Although I obviously didn't make the above comment, I will mention that:"If you'd made that much money, you'd do the same. I know this for a fact because it's exactly what someone in my family has experienced. "From rags to riches.""Just to say that one person is not representative of every person, you can't know "for a fact" what anyone else would do based on what one relative of yours did. There's plenty of rags to riches stories where people don't turn out like Phan.

Sorry if this response sounded hostile (not my intent), but I hope that clears things up.

Hmmm, I think I did misunderstand. It's just that since it's all on one post, I kind of tried to condense it all when I thought about it. :s

Kudos to you for not posting sob-stories; and I apologize for forcing you to reply and explain what you have experienced.. definitely not something I would have the guts to post. And yes, I know it would be insulting to have Michelle's story to be "standardized" as tragic (and also that articles about celebs tend to be exaggerated), but it is also worth noting that we are not her - and only she has experienced her story.

Also, about the comment... I was referring directly to the criticism in the comment that was above which was based on .. well, to put it crudely, jealousy, among other things. ("and showing off all her expensive things.") But my point was to emphasize the fact that she's made it thus far.. so why not enjoy what she's earned?

Gaming used to be my passion, though I can safely say I've spent more time playing games as a kid and teenager than actually playing them with other kids, I can't say I no longer game all that much.But, for the little gamer girl I once was I do agree it's so fucking annoying to see the terms nerd and gamer being raped by social wannabes :p These girls are making fun of all of us who did actually suffer for it, I got bullied in school for years because I didn't fit in.

Being a gamer now days goes somewhat the same way than unicorns, phoenixes and dragons being the createst mfukin mythological creatures ever just because they got media raped in HP -.-Hello drowns, lernaean hydra's, chimeras.. anyone????????????Just because somethings "cool" doesn't mean it's right or true.

@Melly - Thanks Melly. I agree with you, although I will say that I strongly object, as well, to the way the word "rape" is used in gaming and popular culture to mean - well, anything OTHER than rape. It's incredibly insulting to rape victims to have something so horrific trivialised in that manner.

Er but everyone does it, so I'm not yelling at you, just sharing another peeve. The unicorn craze is a whole other kettle of fish, ahahaha, but yeah it's safe to say I hate that as well.

@Melly - <3 I know! It's just a part of slang now, I guess, but an unfortunate part. I know people say it without realising or thinking about it, but you mentioned having the terms appropriated and it's a similar situation so I thought I'd mention it, not trying to get at you :3

Oh, I didn't take it personally, but gave my apology, because I truly should think twice sometimes :)

Besides, you're just another person behind the screen to me. I don't know you and would not pretend so, you don't know me. So, there's zero reason to take what you say personally, especially when you were right and formed your comment constructive way.

i have to say, i'm glad to see someone getting reprimanded for using the word 'rape' inappropriately and taking it WELL. i hate to say that if it had been a random dude, he would have gotten defensive and said, 'GOD can't you take a joke? it was JUST a joke'. because, no.

Oh gosh.. If you were infront of me rite now i would like give u a biiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggg hugggggggg for stating this.. AMEN to you Anastasia.. :-)

Well.. I'm not a hardcore gamer per say coz I enjoy pc games more rather than consoles.. coz.. to be honest.. I'm bad at console control.. :-D Huuuggeee fan of strategy games like Command and Conquers (my first game that made me instantly fall in love with games was Red Alert 2) , Battle for Middle Earth.. and also, I love all those adventure games the like of Black Mirror sagas.. ;-)

Okay.. I wanted to say that I am pretty annoyed by Phan's claim of being such a hardcore gamer when all she played was Final Fantasy series.. and recently I read that she was bragging to everybody that she just played HALO..

I'm not really much of a HALO fan but come on, you claim yourself as a HARDCORE GAMER , but you don't even know the game existed.. And what about Halflife? Counterstrike? Oh.. I'm sure you don't know that either Michelle.. coz guess what, YOU ARE NOT A DAMN GAMER AT ALL.. so don't claim yourself as one!!!

Oh , Michelle, if you read this, playing a video games like Streetfighter doesn't justify yourself as HARDCORE GAMER and doesn't give an impression of a NERD. Stop calling yourself that! You make me feel bad for being a gamer as well.. :-(

TBH I don't know much about this chick your ranting about (nice rant, btw). I agree with the ideal that a girl who claims to be a hardcore gamer without supporting that claim is really only doing to to be attention seeking or in her case to get more subs/views/whatever. And I would expect someone who labels themselves as a hardcore gamer to actually play multiple games on a steady basis, and to talk about said games or a more frequent basis. Even then maybe not a hardcore gamer. I think a hardcore gamer is someone who puts a majority of their life into gaming. I dunno, I'm currently AWOL from WoW after about 2 years of full-time playing (hours a day playing - all of my weekends playing, damn it for being so addictive) and even then I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer or even a geek. She sounds like a bit of fakey crap. Glad I don't know who she is, because I wouldn't be able to read such trash on a regular basis without punching my computer screen.

I love you (no homo) for posting this! I hate this whole "geeks are cool" shit, those over sized fake glasses and all other shit that supposedly makes person a nerd. Now, I myself, am not a nerd, nor was I ever been one, but it bugs the fuck out of me that those fakies are trying to be. Phanny carrying a controller-doesn't make her ass a nerd. Just because I own shitload of makeup, doesn't make me a makeup artist! This girl, ugh, so annoying. I hope Lancome would end the contract cuz she's giving them a bad name!!

I used to love Michelle Phan. I'm an Asian girl myself and I could really relate to her (regarding skin tone and eye shape and hair). Plus, I have to admit that her earlier tutorials was amazing. But since she joined Lancome...I don't know what happened to her anymore. Let's just say that I don't like her anymore to keep the negativity from pouring out of me. ;)

Sorry for the unrelated rant, I'll get to the point now. I'm not a gamer at all, but I am a manga geek and soccer geek since, I don't know, forever? xD But then, since World Cup 2010, it is suddenly cool for girls to watch soccer! It doesn't really matter if they show genuine interest, but i can see that a lot of them just watch it to be "cool" and join in "the conversation". It really annoys the hell outta me when they don't even know what 4-4-2 means! (it is the most basic team formation, btw) They don't even watch the match, they were busy with their own phone the whole time. And no, just because you support a country in World Cup, it doesn't mean that you are a soccer fan! Blaaarrrggh. It really pains me because I still remember "the look" i got from "it" girls when I was talking about soccer with my other soccer loving friends.

I remembered she cited what obviously was a taxi on WoW as her "mount" on her xanga even she was obviously in all grays or some shit...and was low level. The screenshot was taken where the taxis sometimes angle to turn.

That was my only WTF moment with her and it was really early on in her career when she was still making cute makeup tutorials from her mom's patio in Florida :(

I use to be picked on for liking video games and anime by the girly-girls in senior aka highschool but I use to be picked up by the geek girls aswell cos I didn't meet upto 'their gaming standards'....So I didn't fit in anywhere in these two groups... so I use to respect Michelle for 'bringing the two together'.. so to speak... Then I recreated one of her looks and reposted it to her, she totally snubbed it (and I sent it to her a few times).She's totally ignorant and reading up on her and on THIS blog, makes me just hate her now!User, total user! Would put her self in everycategory just to boost her own fame and the fact that she's created this YT account with Swoozie and doesn't bother to appear in them anymore is a pisstake, prooves how much of a gamer she actually is!

Anyway, i just wanted to say that I agree with your entire post, and that I also hate these fucking retarded posers that like to associate themselves with our subculture, even though they don't know jack shit about the intricacies of it.

Sadly, the internet is full of these attention whores, both male and female.

Also, being a guitar and drum and piano player, I hate people that pretend to be guitar/drum/piano players just to get MOAR ATTENTION, even though they wouldn't be able to play 3 fucking notes of a song on any of those instruments.

You know who I am talking about, those kinds of people that buy a guitar, take pics of themselves and put them up on Fagbook and Twatter and shit, holding said guitar, and then leave it in a corner to gather dust because they realised that "hey, this shit is actually hard".

This is so hard to read! because I agree 100%. I remember growing up over a decade ago when being a gamer girl was equivalent to the joke today about the 40 year old man who still lives with his parents. It was embarrassing to have the "cool kids" (even though the boys at the time secretly thought you were hot) pick on you for preferring to play video games than attend after school functions like football games or prom. Then suddenly one day a few years back, girls found out how guys LIKE when females play games and voila you have a whole new "scene". Well guess what sweetie? It's girls like ME and the ones on this page who paved the way for YOU to be so open about your "hardcore gaming" persona. I have said this before on other pages, I cannot even express how many thousands of hours I spent playing video games and I am sure Michelle and other wannabes maybe watched FF:Advent Children and then played a few hours here and there of that awful abomination called FFXIII and it's equally awful sequel. Ask those same individuals to play let's say FFVI or FFIV, 99% of the time I hear "Oh I can't get into it, its graphics are too old.". Gamer? YEAH AND I SPROUTED WINGS AND CAN FLY. I promise you, if Michelle lived back in the 90's and she proclaimed to be a gamer, girls would have looked at her in disgust like they did me for so many damn years and therefore she would have NEVER tried to lay claim to the title since that would mean less money for her. Every veteran fan knows Final Fantasy is a sellout series... In fact, maybe that's why Michelle Phan likes it, they have a lot in common.

A 24 year-old English nerd who believes that "geek chic" isn't a pink iPod, and that it's not necessary to make technology safe for women to use. I, and my nerdy brethren, want to look pretty while we're pwning your ass.